the silly interview

last wednesday's broadcast of the best of monty python's graham chapman was both hilarious and sad. hilarious that he was such a comic genius and sad the way he lived his life (the drinking which affected his work and his smoking which eventually killed him).

i sat on edge waiting for my vote as the Best Sketch to be shown, only to be disappointed. they didn't air The Best Sketch of Graham Chapman!

so without further ado, i present to you, the reader, The Best Sketch of Graham Chapman!

enjoy.

procrastinator's dream

have you ever messed with a zen garden?

this comes courtesy of a friend of a friend of a friend.... well, you get the picture.

it's a virtual zen garden and it's a hugely entertaining, relaxing way of... wasting time?

here's the link. have some fun. use your mouse to click and drag lines around the sand and elements. scroll down to the bottom and play with the controls. make sure you click on the links at the top of the page to get an idea what you're supposed to do.

but most of all, play a bit. relax.

and now for something completely different

starting tonight and for the next 3 weeks, PBS will be airing specially made episodes featuring the personal favorite Monty Python sketches of each of the members of the group.

click here to read more about it but whatever you do, don't miss it. who cares about the olympics when MP is on air?? for those of you in the cincinnati area, channel 48 starting at 9pm - tonight: eric idle and graham chapman!

hi, my name is scott...

...and my dog likes to eat his poop.

many have asked for updates on the puppy and that's the biggest update. he eats poop. his own poop. others dogs' poop. goose and duck poop. if it's poop, he eats it.

we go outside to go bathroom - he poops and promptly turns around to give it a taste. we go for walks in the neighborhood and there's Rex's poop from around the corner - hmm, how does this taste? we go to new richmond and walk by the river - hey, there's goose and duck poop! a tasty treat! thank you for taking me for walks so i can munch on poop!!

it's gross.

so the vet offers me a prescription that is supposed to make poop-eating as disgusting to dogs as it is to you and me. this plus the heartworm pills: $115.00. into the food it goes. yay! dolby eats the prescribed anti-poop-eating stuff!! oh, boy - there's "the look" that says, "i'm about to explode!" - out we go! dum dee dum dee dum... here comes the squat, out comes the poop! yay!! dolby pooped! now let's go back inside!

no! dolby, NO! LEAVE IT!! GET AWAY FROM THAT POOP!! STOP IT! ewww!! dolby! you're supposed to think poop-eating is gross now!! oh! stop licking my face! bleah blah pbbtthhh!! so much for "works instantly" and "makes poop undesirable".

otherwise, he's good puppy. we're having a lot of fun with him. he's growing fast and having a lot of fun. and he eats poop.

ice, ice baby

today on washingtonpost.com there was an online interview with vanilla ice and the results are somewhat comical.

i'll let you read it for yourself, but one section i'll quote is:

Washington, D.C.: What do you think of Eminem?

Vanilla Ice: I'm glad there's another white guy out there having success because it's all been on my shoulders for so long.

to which i say: vanilla WHO?? is there some other "rapper" named vanilla ice who's actually been successful RAPPING and not just successful at getting caught as a poser and worn-out has-been appearing on such loser-filled shows as the surreal life?

duebber - help me out!

reading and listening

stuff i'm reading:
Ray Bradbury: Life of Fiction - this book looks at key writings of Bradbury and the literary style, editing and wrangling with publishers and editors that brought these books to fruition. they analyze the carnival atmosphere and attitude that goes through all of his writings (stemming from his first collection back in the 40's - Dark Carnival - and through much of his subsequent books such as Dandelion Wine and Something Wicked This Way Comes). it's an interesting read IF you know much of the works they're looking at. it's very dry and academic and i'm frankly having a hard time finishing it.

A Great Improvisation : Franklin, France, and the Birth of America - a book that i waited 6 months for. a book that i highly anticipated being awesome and fantastic and all around enjoyable. a book that i almost stopped reading another book just to start this one.... and guess what? i can't get past the first thirty pages. it's just... flat. it's not grabbing me at all.

The Johnstown Flood, by David McCullough - having finished his biographies on John Adams, 1776 and Harry Truman, i had to keep reading his stuff. i've only just started this but so far it's excellent. i don't know what got me on this history kick, but wow - good stuff. his narrative style is very readable and clear - helps you to get lost in the fact that it's a book. he's good at bringing his subjects to life.

given the greatness of McCullough's writing, i'm not sure why i'm even bothering with trying to finish the first two.

books in the que:

Mornings on Horseback, by David McCullough - a Teddy Roosevelt bio.

Teacher Man, by Frank McCourt - his autobiographical Angela's Ashes and followup 'Tis blew my mind. here's book three.

Blue Like Jazz - everyone's talking about this book. i've had it for months but haven't read it.

A Man Without a Country, by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. - easily one of my favorite writers - vonnegut is a nihilistic writer of observations about the human condition. his hardcore sarcasm and pessimism have led me to wonder how he's made it to such a ripe old age without killing himself.

stuff i'm listening to:
Neil Young - Prairie Wind - one of his best. slow. thoughtful. acoustic.

Jimmy Smith - The Sermon - can't get this one out of my CD player - it's as funky a jazz/blues album as they come, with smith, one of the finest Hammond B3 organists of his time, laying down some funky lines and all his sidemen falling into place - i can't get past it!

Duke Ellington - Money Jungle - ellington, roach and mingus together - what could be wrong about that?? i'm listening to it now and just swingin with these cats.

Over the Rhine - Drunkard's Prayer - mesmerizing.

Smashing Pumpkins - Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness - the ultimate Pumpkins album. i don't think i'll ever get tired of this one. Corgan is a genius. and when i heard that he presented Pink Floyd with the Rock N Roll Hall of Fame award, it all made perfect sense. kindred spirits.

albums i'm waiting for:
David Gilmour - On An Island - Gilmour, guitarist / vocalist for Pink Floyd - this is his first solo album since i was a freshman in high school (yes - a LONG time ago). can't tell you how long i've waited for this day...

if you're still reading at this point, congratulations. i'm boring myself with all this.

meet karen p. see

meet karen. aka "kar" aka karen patricia.

she was mentioned in my newsboys rant a couple days ago. unfortunately she was not named by name and was subsequently a bit miffed. i promised i would rectify this situation.

karen was indeed the one who accosted the hated peter furler and forced him to confess to his heinous crime of duplicity.

kar was one of my girls from a youth group i was a part of from around 1998 - 2000. i met her when she was all of 14 or 15 years old. the above picture is probably from summer of 2001. she's all grown up now and she makes me proud. and not just because of the forced confession of peter.

karen is one of those youth group kids that you get close to and you love to death. and you keep loving even when it seems like they're moving in an all together completely different direction than you hope they would go. and you love even when you eventually lose touch for one reason or another. and you just love because you've been there with her for so many different things over the years.

i worried about kar for a couple of years. and it's the kind of worry that makes you want to say something or shake the person really hard and say "what on earth are you thinking??!?!?!" but you don't because you know sometimes decisions have to be made and things need to happen to grow and learn. and sometimes you learn. and other times you don't.

when karen caught me in mid-2005 and told me all the things she was doing (starting at Lancaster Bible College, dating an awesome Christian youth-pastor-dude named kevin, working with her youth group, wanting to get into the missions field, among other things), i cried. no joke. i was so happy and so thankful and so proud of her. heck, i still am. she has become an incredible woman.

i got to meet her now-fiance' kevin back in november and gave him my standard "if you hurt my little girl, i will be forced to come back, hunt you down and kill you" routine (it comes standard with being one of Scott's Girls) but even as i was giving the speech i realized that this was one guy who would treat her right. and that made me even more happy. and proud.

so there you have it. you've now been properly introduced. kar recently gave in and got herself a myspace account. if you care i'm sure you can track her down.

chronic (what?) cles of narnia

saw narnia friday night for the first time with lise. it was good. enjoyable.

only thing that bugs me (more like "distracts me") is poorly done computer graphics. i was fine until the beavers and aslan. it was STILL a good movie - that was just distracting.

the chronicles of narnia rap still makes me chuckle. a lot.

the newsboys rant

it's no secret that i despise the newsboys. as a youth minister, i couldn't stand having to go to their concerts, buy their CD's or, heaven forbid, play their music at youth group. i was youth pastor to a particularly rabid group of newsboys fans back in 1998-2000. "step up to the microphone" came out in '99 and i swear that if i had heard "entertaining angels" one more time, i'd have driven my car off the road and ended it all.

how, then, do come to have peter furler's (newsboys frontman) autograph framed and proudly displayed on my bookshelf?

i had developed a theory around this time simply to drive the newsboys fanatics crazy that went like this: peter furler and billy corgan (lead singer / songwriter of the smashing pumpkins) both shave their heads, both play guitar, both wear eyeliner, both sing lead in their respective bands. but when the newsboys are on tour, the pumpkins mysteriously disappeared. when the pumpkins were on tour, the newsboys were "back in australia" - recording dates also seemed to happen at opposing times. peter and billy had never been seen at the same time in the same place.

it must be, i mused, that peter and billy are one and the same!! this drove several people a bit nuts when i would talk about this "conspiracy" and illicited protests and much eye rolling.

fast forward to the summer of 2000. newsboys are on tour in maryland (where we lived and did ministry). the week of our summer camp the newsboys are in town. two of my girls skipped camp this summer to see the newsboys (a sin, i was certain). they had paid extra for the backstage passes and i decided once and for all to resolve the peter/billy question.

taking a pic of peter and putting it next to a pic of billy, i printed the result out and gave it to the girls with the order that they were to meet peter backstage, explain my theory, show them the picture and confront him with the ugly truth of his duplicity! they, of course, rolled their eyes, but then promised they'd do it.

i was floored when, after camp, they hand me back the picture i gave them with peter having written: "This is NOT Billy" with an arrow pointing to billy corgan's picture. he then signed the picture - THUS PROVING that my theory is CORRECT!!

while i still don't like the newsboys, peter/billy has found a special place in my heart. and when he brings the pumpkins back together, i'll be first in line to buy the CD.

sideshow bob...

...is my hero.

suave, crazy, silky-voiced killer.

a man not afraid of pursuing world dominance. not afraid of spiky-haired hooligans. not afraid of knives (and knows how to use em, too). not afraid of rakes. (ok, that last one was a lie)

what's not to love?

"I did once try to kill the world's greatest lover, but then I realized that there were laws against suicide." - sideshow bob

the best thing about superbowl XL?

the Simpsons at halftime.

sure, sure - the game was good, but we're not really that much into pro football anyway, so watching tonight was obligatory because nothing else was really on. we don't shell out for cable or satellite, so we're stuck with what we can get. we're movie-d out and there we were. we usually watch for the commercials, but with a few exceptions, the commercials sucked this year. advertising budgets down? or just creativity?

but the Simpsons - and one i hadn't seen yet (the Italian Bob) - saved the evening.

intelligent design v evolution

an even-handed article on the intelligent design v. evolution debate with some darwin facts and discussion from scientists who are christian that make for a good read.

the author will be having an online discussion about this article monday at 1pm @ washingtonpost.com - i'm interested in seeing what he has to say and what the reaction is to all this.

i need to read it again before commenting on it.

pumpkins are back?!?!

wow. billboard reports today that it's looking more likely than ever that the smashing pumpkins are getting back together - or at least that billy corgan and jimmy chamberlin are reviving the name and putting together a supporting ensemble.

i want to be excited and happy, looking forward to new tunes from the group (a group in my top five favorites) but...

reunions, getting bands together that broke up five years earlier, this all concerns me. the pumpkins were relevant 7-8 years ago with the teenage and young adult crowd. their fans are now older, out of college and moved on to life. (haha - except this one, obviously).

will anyone care?