I am here to annouce that I will still be listening to Jet and The Darkness, no matter how much I get made fun of.

Also, I am finally coming to terms with The Dismemberment Plan breaking up.

Finally, I received my "Cellar Door" (John Vanderslice) tee shirt in the mail yesterday. I will sleep in it every night and dream of John...

Songs I can't live without today:

"Get Down Moses" - Joe Strummer and The Mescaleros

"A Small Victory" - Faith No More

"Bleed American" - Jimmy Eat World

"Up Over the Sea" - John Vanderslice

The theme song from "Fraggle Rock"

"Volunteers" - Jefferson Airplane

"Love Rollercoaster" - Ohio Players

"Teenage Heart Attack" - Soledad Brothers

"Burning Down the House" - Talking Heads

"Sister Savior" - The Rapture

"Time of the Season" - The Zombies

"Gin and Juice" - Phish

Today is the 31st anniversary of Roe vs. Wade. I'm sure everyone can probably recite verbatim the lecture I normally give, so I'll spare you this time. Please check out this link for direction on supporting this important right for women. Also, if you would like a precise analysis of the Federal Government's participation in the limitation of these rights, please read this.

Song of the day: "Siren" - Tori Amos.

Today I caught "Furry Happy Monsters Being Glad" on Sesame Street. It ruled.

My continuing obsession with John Vanderslice has been furthered by the kind folks at Love Garden. I was there yesterday bumming around, and asked about the release date for the new Vanderslice album (which is the 20th, by the way), and was rewarded with a promo copy to borrow until the real deal comes out.

(Incidentally, the album title is "Cellar Door", a Donnie Darko reference. Way to go John!)

I am so cool.

And yes, the work is incredible. Preorder it on Barsuk now.

Song of the day: "Up Above the Sea" - John Vanderslice.

Barry Manilow is one of my secret obsessions. I can't get over what a horrible artist he is - I mean, he didn't even write "I Write the Songs". And "Weekend in New England" is the gayest song I have ever heard. Seriously.

Anyway, my sister Whitney also shares this dirty little secret, and for Christmas I got her a Barry Manilow live DVD. We watched it...and oh - what a performer...my favorite parts are when he's singing away, and he'll "spontaneously" get up from the piano and grab the mic and break it down. Amazingly, the piano part still keeps going. He's that talented.

I'm not sure why I'm disclosing all of this. It's just so bad it's good, you know?

Song of the day: "Mandy"- Barry Manilow.

And now it's time for everyone's favorite segment - Recent Observations!

* I was watching some kind of Trinity Broadcasting Network retrospective last night where I found out some very important things:
- Evidently God loves all 800 billion (?) people in China.
- This country disgraced God and our "Founding Fathers" by taking prayer out of school in 1962.
- The Supreme Court is full of godless heathen hypocrites.
- Token African Americans are very important for ratings.
- People in "war torn" Turkey (?) value satellite dishes over food.
- "Love gifts" ensure salvation.
- There's some guy named Jesus that gets misquoted a lot.

* Midwest weather is so weird. It's going to be 65 today, and then it's predicted to snow on Sunday.

* The right click button on our mouse is now defunct. You'd be surprised how much of a hindrance that is.

* Everyone is scrambling to either prove or discredit the viability of Howard Dean as THE Democratic candidate. I fail to see why anyone is bothering - this election was decided the day our country was attacked.

* I have been forced to start using facial moisturizer twice daily based on a shocking discovery of forehead wrinkles the other day. Oh, what a drag it is getting old.

* Willie Nelson has come out with an anti-war song. Better late than never, I suppose.

* According to some gossip I heard last night, our country is pulling all aid and military "guidance" out of Afghanistan, and returning control over to The Taliban or a similar group. I guess the war on terror is going about as well as the war on drugs.

* Midnight Oil was a great band. The fact that the majority of their work was created in the 1980's is all that more inspiring.

Song of the day: "US Forces" - Midnight Oil.