Today's theme: Something in the Air

Knife throwers: Good luck finding a replacement. It's a job I'd never want . . .

A seminal thought: It's occurred to me that the spunky smell on some streets in Oakland and South Side is not from some public pervert who just moments ago had a moment . . . but it's the dogwood trees. This past week they've been in bloom and releasing their pheromones. Some folks aside from me have noticed it. Tony's college chick neighbor was saying: "Yeah, it smells like cleaner or .... " All of the trees that his block is lined with are dogwoods it seems. Maybe you had to be there, but it was funny. I guess all life forms share a large amount of the same DNA so maybe it's not surprising that our reproductive scents may be similar. I was thinking, this dude, whoever he is, sure is wound up. I'm glad it's just mother nature.

Saddam Hussein still at large, missing, whereabouts unknown. We have no DNA sources to look for his trace remains in the rubble or ruins. But his statue is down, symbolically he's overthrown, and he's pretty well ousted in every other sense of the word. We may see hima gain, though. who knows?

Speaking of rubble and ruins, I saw the tear-down production of an old warehouse-type building last night. It served as the backdrop for the players at the Valhalla open mic in the Strip District. Ya know how some performers will have a movie playing behind them? Well, there was no movie, but the cranes and big diggers and falling bricks and building chunks filled the tall windows behind the players in the bar area of Valhalla. Pretty cool looking. My guess is the building is gonna be replaced by the new expansions of the Heinz History Center.

I played a coupla standby originals and a new one I just learned this weekend: When You're Loved Like You Are by a band called Of Montreal. They're not from Montreal, their from Athens, GA or something.

Oh soap box, how do you stand to bear it all?
Pardon me while I step on you. And soapbox?
I'll try to keep you in the scholarly realm of open air,
And not push you behind the pulpit over there.

This story about some angry and misguided woman protesting Fred Rogers' life and work was brought to my attention from Joe's blog, and I feel compelled to comment as well.

The miasma that these folks purport to be the truth has some obvious flaws. How unfortunate that some people cannot see these flaws, their flawed logic.

1. Fred Rogers' television show was/is for children. Themes relating to sexuality are not for children. We should protect the innocence of children. Grave topics like divorce and death merit a child's attention, because they unfortunately are part of life that a child may experience. But the distinctions between hetero- and homo-sexual relations are not appropriate for a figure like Fred Rogers to address. I imagine this is why he never did a show about it.

2. Hate is not the same as love. They are different things. Both demand a lot of attention, but different kinds of attention. God loves all of his creatures, all of us sinners, including those who choose to hate. That's some powerful love. It is sin He chooses to hate. Gay or not, God still loves you. Simply put: Love the sinner, hate the sin... These folks are missing that point. One needn't look further than the web addy: ww.godhatesfags.com These folks have hate in their name. How unfortunate.

In a make-believe (had to use the term) dialog between Matt Shepherd and Fred Rogers in Hell (oh, they condemn Mr. Rogers to Hell), these folks, suggest that if Shepherd had read his Bible, he'd recognize "the lies that Mr. Rogers sold." Hmmmm . . . if these same people read thier Bible as well, wouldn't they know the familiar passage:
Do not pass judgement, that you may not be judged; for the way you judge you will be judged and with what yardstick you measure you will be measured. But why notice the splinter in your brother’s eye without taking notice of the beam in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, Let me extract that splinter from your eye, when there is a beam in your own eye? You hypocrite! First get rid of that beam in your eye; then you will see clearly to extract the splinter from your brother’s eye. (uh-oh, sounds like a carpenter...). (Matthew 7:1-5)

I'm not saying, "Hey everybody, go be gay!" I'm saying don't hate people. It's easy to point out flaws in other people, but tough to treat a person with love and respect despite their flaws . . . it's a two-way street man, and that's what it's really about.
As a good academic, I cite my sources. As a bad poet, please pardon me if I pushed my soap box a little far.

I had a kooky dream last night: Paul McCartney was doing a tour or something that brought him to Pittsburgh, and he kinda got all confused or something, because he came over to my house and brought like seven of these bizarre hollow frame looking guitars (I've never seen anything like them, kinda like funky suspension bridges, but guitars . . . ) then my mom shows up and offers to make him a pancake breakfast if he decides to stay the night. So he and I start talking about writing songs and stuff, and he shows me some stuff on his funky guitars. I tried playing one but it was a little awkward at first. Poor guy though, says when he's on the road and gets really tired and lonsesome he starts thinking about Linda and misses her. Then he bucks up and says let me show you this song I like to play, I'm sure you've never heard it before. And it was some old song that he played since he was a kid, and i had never heard before, but then he got sorta confused again ... I think we were up all night talking about stuff cuz my mom came down and started making pancakes, and then I woke up. :)