The way I see it from happyrobot - updated 6/9/2026 2:14:25 AM https://www.happyrobot.net/words/thewayiseeit.asp en-us <![CDATA[The Very Best Albums Released In 2011 (That I Heard, And Which Aligned With My Particular Musical Tastes)]]> https://www.happyrobot.net/words/thewayiseeit.asp?id=10364
Here goes. My favorite records of 2011...

1. M83 – Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming (Mute)
Remember 80's synth-pop? Remember the things you liked about it? Remember the things you didn't like about it? Well, M83 have managed to create a fully-realized double album of brilliant 80's-esque synth-pop that manages to stick with the things that we loved about 80's synth-pop: ethereal melodies, new-wavey wistfulness, and you can even dance to it. Now, imagine Peter Gabriel fronting that band. Extra points to M83 for such an ambitious record -- I have a soft spot for bands who take the album seriously in this age of a la carte downloads.  




2. The War On Drugs – Slave Ambient (Secretly Canadian)
There's really no other way to describe The War On Drugs other than to say that they're like if Bob Dylan fronted Yo La Tengo. If you are going to try to sound like Bob Dylan when you sing, you had better be writing some kickass songs. The War On Drugs does that. This is art. It's rare to hear albums these days that deserve to be treated like a novel or a film. This is a record with a consistency, a sense of place, and a sustained emotional depth throughout. One or two more like this, and The War On Drugs will be my favorite band going.




3. Fucked Up – David Comes To Life (Matador)
A+ for ambition. Not only do Fucked up bring the riffs and the energy here. They are bringing a double-album. Not only a double-album, but a double concept album. Not only a double concept album, but a double concept album with an immersive supplemental concept compilation (not included) of 'hits' by fictional rock bands (Fucked Up trying on different styles) the titular character grew up with. Add to that a handful of brilliant, cinematic videos that elevate the material to 'Quadrophenia' /'The Wall' levels of artistry, and you have one of the very best records of the year. Plus they put on one of the best live shows going. 




4. Elbow – Build A Rocket, Boys! (Downtown/Cooperative)
Another band that is kinda shunned by the indie rock crowd for being really good musicians and dressing nicely. That's ok, though. I think Elbow strives for something bigger.  Like The National, they are a class act doing very deliberate and thoughtful material that is more conducive to a theater (or an arena) than a rock club.  If you are a fan of well-crafted, cerebral, artistic rock music with powerful melodies, this is for you. They have a back catalog that is totally up to snuff, as well. 




5. Wye Oak – Civilian (Merge)
What can you say about Wye Oak? They're another act that's kind of difficult to describe to the uninitiated, other than to say, 'Oh, you'll really like them, they're great.' They're a duo. They are kind of folky. But they also have this swirly, noisy, dreamy thing going on. And Jenn Wasner has one of the most interesting voices you're likely to hear -- somewhat androgynous, wistful, seductive, and haunting. She can slice right through you and make your heart explode. This is a gorgeous record -- fully realized, ambitious, and wholly unique. Holy unique. 




6. White Denim – D (Downtown)
As a musician, I never really was fond of comparisons, but as a fan of music, I can't help myself (have you noticed?). White Denim, if you will, sounds like the love child of The Grateful Dead, Yes, and Radiohead. Certainly not quite the sum of those parts (and yes, I realize that many of you are already turned off), but something very interesting, nonetheless. I am not sure why this record didn't get more attention this year. I believe it may be that many indie-rockers were resistant to the super-polished musicianship, and many heavy rock/alternative fans were turned off by their hippie-ishness. Stop over-analyzing your music and just listen to it.  This record, unlike so many released this year, has the ability to surprise at every turn. You recognize shards of music history here and there. Sometimes you're sure they're ripping off something, but you can't quite put your finger on it. Who really cares? It sounds good.




7. Tom Waits – Bad As Me (Anti-)
What is there to say, really? This is quite simply Waits at his best. It's his first studio album in seven years, and his best since 'Mule Variations.' It's got everything: rockers, ballads, a seasonal tune ('New Year's Eve), and one of the best anti-war songs ever ('Hell Broke Luce').  Another solid entry in a solid discography by a dude who has yet to jump the shark.




8. Kurt Vile – Smoke Rings For My Halo (Matador)
Not sure what happened here. Kurt Vile really came into his own. I always love when a label (it's usually Matador or Merge) has the prescience to sign an act just before they start taking giant steps. Kurt Vile was on my radar. I kind of liked his stuff okay, I guess. Then he dropped this record and floored me. Gently, sure. But still. 




9. Megafaun – S/T (Hometapes)
Formed from the ashes of DeYarmond Edison (which featured Justin Vernon aka Bon Iver), Megafaun seem to be overshadowed by their former bandmate. However, I have grown to like Megafaun more than I like Bon Iver. Whereas I sometimes find myself wanting to cut myself when I listen to Bon Iver, Megafaun's herky-jerky folk-rock tends to give me warm fuzzies. You know when you wake up and try to make a fist, but you can't? That's kind of how Megafaun sounds.




10. Lucinda Williams – Blessed (Lost Highway)
Hands down the best thing she has done since 'Car Wheels.' This is the most that she has sounded like a member of a band since then, and the songs have an urgency and a visceral feel that has been missing from some of her more recent recordings. If you loved 'Car Wheels,' but you have gotten off the Lucinda Williams train, you should probably get back on with this record.




11. …And You will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead – Tao Of The Dead (Superball Music)
Unfortunately there aren't enough bands who put out this kind of stuff. I have a thing for smart, complex, artistic, noise-rock bands that are also very much interested in melody and hooks.  Extra points if they can pull it off without pretentiousness or cringe-inducing lyrics. The last two Trail of Dead records have secured them as one of the best going (alongside Parts & Labor).  Solid.




12. Bill Callahan – Apocalypse (Drag City)
This guy is an overlooked treasure. Sure, he's somewhat of a legend in indie-rock circles, but seriously, he's like our Leonard Cohen or Nick Drake.  Slightly more prolific, less consistent in style, but certainly as unique. While both of those guys are not American, Callahan seems to exude Americanness. A little bit Kerouac, a little bit Faulkner, a little bit Kristofferson (Kris gets a shout-out in the track 'America!'.  This record, 'Apocalypse,' seemed perfect in 2011 (we nearly had one, literally and figuratively.)  There are many great moments on this record -- it feels almost improvised at times.  There are some stumbles, to be sure, but that's all made up for by the magical parts.  




13. The Belle Brigade – S/T (Reprise)
If you don't like The Belle Brigade, you probably hate music. Yes, they do sound almost too much like Fleetwood Mac. But we don't have a Fleetwood Mac anymore, and I liked Fleetwood Mac. And these songs, Mac-esque production values aside, are well-crafted pop songs. The Belle Brigade are somewhat of a more accessible, more polished New Pornographers. Is that such a bad thing?




14. Wilco – The Whole Love (dBpm/Anti-)
Okay, so this is not 'Yankee Hotel Foxtrot.' It's probably not as good as 'A Ghost Is Born' or 'Sky Blue Sky' (Hey! I like that record. A lot.). Call me a sucker, but I like Wilco records, and a mediocre Wilco record is usually still pretty great. One of the interesting things about scrobbling your music (for the uninitiated, this is automatically feeding your listens to online services such as Last.fm), is you sometimes notice that you actually listened to a record more in a year than you thought. One of my most important criteria for grading a record is how much I enjoyed listening to it. By the look of my scrobbles, this record is more enjoyable than I think it is.




15. Radiohead – The King Of Limbs (TBD)
Sure, sure, it was a weird record that seemed kind of incomplete (was there a second half somwhere?), but it's Radiohead. Sometimes I think people don't give them enough credit because they expect too much. If a new band had put out The King Of Limbs and Radiohead didn't exist in our universe, this record would have made many more year-end lists. 




Runners-Up: 
Beastie Boys – Hot Sauce Committee Pt. II (Capitol)
Stephen Malkmus – Mirror Traffic (Matador)
Gillian Welch – Harrow & The Harvest (Acony)
TV On The Radio – Nine Types Of Light (Interscope)
Luup – Meadow Rituals (Experimedia)
Bon Iver – S/T (Jagjaguwar)
Fleet Foxes – Helplessness Blues (Sub Pop)
The Roots – Undun (Def Jam)
Pistol Annies – Hell On Heels (Sony Nashville)
Parts & Labor – Constant Future (Jagjaguwar)
St. Vincent – Strange Mercy (4AD)]]> <![CDATA[One Time I Totaled A US Postal Vehicle]]> https://www.happyrobot.net/words/thewayiseeit.asp?id=10238 Despite what you may have heard, Mail carriers go on vacation sometimes.  Oftentimes, like many Americans, they go on vacation in the summer.  During the summer, the US Postal Service hires substitute letter carriers so that these hard-working government employees can relax on the beach instead of stuffing your mailbox with unwanted circulars.

I was a substitute mail carrier in Asheville, NC one summer, while home from college.  It seemed like a cool thing to do.  You always have nights off, you get home before most nine-to-fivers, and you never have to work on a Sunday, which left your Saturday nights wide open to do things that college kids like to do.  In theory, it sounded great. 

It wasn't really so great.  First, you had to go through an excruciatingly boring certification class designed to ensure that the substitute mail carriers abide by all USPS guidelines, traffic laws, and safety regulations.  This class is probably more boring than your high school driver's ed class, and there was not even a screening of  "Death on the Highway." 

I took the class with another guy -- let's call him Kyle, because his name was Kyle.  We would joke around during breaks about how boring the class was, and we particularly loved one class anecdote about a poor sap who forgot to put on his emergency brake when he parked on a hill and the truck crashed through someone's garage. 

Kyle and I would get to the post office each morning before the sun came up and sort mail for an hour or so -- cruel and unusual punishment for any college kid.  The sooner you got your mail sorted, the sooner you could head out on your route.  Every week you'd have a new route, since you were filling in for whoever was on vacation.  So essentially, you worked on each route for 6 days -- routes that probably took at least 10 days to learn.  You see, this was before people had cell phones, GPS, or Google Maps.  And I am certain that many of the addresses did not exist in our dimension.  Hopefully those folks were not waiting on an important letter that week.

There are many nice things about delivering the mail.  For instance, your mind can wander, and you are out there working completely by yourself.  There are also many not-so-good things about delivering the mail.  Namely, the fact that your mind can wander, and you are out there working completely by yourself.  If you have a question on your first day at most jobs, you can kindly ask your co-worker how to go about something.  Not so when you're out there on your route.  You wing it.  You look for addresses above garages, in alleys, underground.  Mostly you end up coming back to the station with shitloads of undelivered mail that you attempt to deliver again the next day. And the next day.  Until your vacationing mail carrier comes back and wishes he never went on vacation.

One of the worst tasks a substitute mail carrier might end up performing is delivering the mail to the projects on welfare check day.  I don't think I can describe it without it sounding racist.  So let's just say it's like there's a Tea Party rally that is advertising a 2pm meet-and-greet with Sarah Palin and you show up at 5pm with Nancy Pelosi. 

Certainly the greatest fantasy of any male US mail carrier, or at least of any male college-aged substitute mail carrier, is to knock on a door with a special delivery only to be invited in by a Mrs. Robinson for a glass of ice water.  I didn't have that experience.  I did, however, receive catcalls in the projects from a lady in curlers who told me that "Ooowheee, the mailman look GOOT ta-day."

When the mailman makes a special delivery, as Kyle and I learned in that class, he is to turn off the engine of his Jeep, steer the wheel toward the curb, and firmly engage the emergency brake.  There are always times when we follow all the guidelines and do everything to a T, and there are times when we're so dog-tired and hot that we believe that just this once it will be ok to cut a corner or two.  I know that I turned the engine off, and I'm pretty sure that I pulled the emergency brake.  I may not have pointed the tires towards the curb. 

Just a day prior, Kyle was fired for backing into the postmaster's truck with his mail vehicle.  I had joked with Kyle about what shitty luck he had, and had laughingly relayed the anecdote to several folks. 

As I was walking towards the house with the special delivery, I remember hearing a child yelling, which I mistook for the sound of children playing, until I distinctly heard the words, "Mailman! Mailman!...Yo truck! Yo truck!"

Slow motion is often employed in cinema to stress a pivotal moment in time.  This was a moment in my life that I can only recall in slow motion, and I sometimes believe that time actually did slow down for what was probably only about 7 seconds.  I remember turning my head enough to see this boy standing in the middle of the road, his arm stretched out, pointing straight ahead.  And from the look on his face, you'd have thought aliens were attacking.  The Jeep was slowly rolling down the street.  I remember dropping the delivery and running with everything I had towards the Jeep.  I had the idea that I would be able to catch up with it and, like Indiana Jones or something, I would slide into the Jeep in the nick of time and save the day.   But those '70s Jeeps had minds of their own, and this one veered towards a yard, climbed the curb and began to descend a slope between two houses.  On the other side of these two houses, in the path of the Jeep, was another house.  In my mind, at that moment, I imagined a child sitting in his living room totally unaware that he was about to die.

If I were a religious man, I would have thought that God steered that Jeep right into a tree stump that afternoon.   The ensuing fireworks display -- hundreds of letters and magazines and boxes expanding in all directions as the Jeep flipped over that stump --  served as a grand finale to a miserable summer job that I didn't have the guts to quit. 

As the dust settled and the scene resembled a still from "Death On The Highway," an old man came out of his house and asked matter-of-factly, "Boy, why'd you go and do that for?"  I said, "I don't know," and then I asked If I could come inside and borrow his phone.









]]> <![CDATA[Tyler Perry Presents 'Herschel Weiner's Top 20 Music Things of 2010']]> https://www.happyrobot.net/words/thewayiseeit.asp?id=10131 Like fruitcake from your great aunt, I keep on giving you folks my 'best-of'  list each holiday season, even though I'm pretty sure it never gets fully digested.  But like your great aunt, you can't stop tradition, so I give you my favorite music from 2010. If it's not on this list, I either didn't like it very much or I never heard it.

Let's go backwards this year. That's how those smarty-pants do it at Pitchfork. Assholes.

20. Girl Talk - All Day
Girl Talk's dance-party collage technique could unleash hundreds of discussions on intellectual property rights, or the definition of music, but those people would be missing out on the party. Yes, it's a gimmick. But if you have a good time listening to the gimmick, it's good, right?  If anything, I like the way the record often uses less-than compelling tracks (and even songs you may hate) to create something interesting, often more interesting than the source. Bonus points for the nostalgia trip.


19. Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
I have a love/hate relationship with Kanye. I thought "College Dropout" signaled a new age of thoughtful, socially conscious mainstream hip hop. Then he became successful/crazy. After his last (atrocious) record, and his increasingly bizarre behavior, I kind of wrote him off as an extra-terrestrial idiot. Then what does he do? Creates a piece of art. Damn you, Kanye!


18. The Roots - How I Got Over
One of the only major label hip hop acts that still uses the medium to make you think while you shake your ass.  And they're not only smart and socially conscious, but they create songs from the ground up, unlike so many hip hop acts with their canned beats sourced from some beats and loops sweatshop. This is art.


17. Deerhunter - Halcyon Digest
I like where Deerhunter are going, although I'm not so sure where that is. This is their most ambitious record, for sure. It's lush, layered, dreamy, and sprawling, without losing its momentum or its poppy hooks (they're in there somewhere). Plus it has a picture on the cover of one of David Lynch's fever dreams.


16. Blitzen Trapper - Destroyer Of The Void
I usually dislike bands that sound like they're from another decade. It's so often the only thing worth noting about those bands. Blitzen Trapper, however, seem to pull off the late '60's/early 70's West coast rock sound so effortlessly, and their songs are so well-written and executed, that you accept that the only plausible explanation is that  they came from there in a time machine.


15. Drive-By Truckers - The Big To-Do
Not as compelling (or as infectious) as "Brighter Than Creation's Dark," but any Drive-By Truckers record is usually twice as good as most anything else that comes out in any given year. It's a fine record. 


14. Sleigh Bells - Treats
There are records that I love at first listen. I often tire of those too soon, because I believe part of what makes music interesting is when it doesn't conform to what your brain wants it to do. This record didn't do anything I wanted it to do on first listen. Later, I realized it sounds like a teenage libido being cranked through a transistor radio. And I can appreciate that.


13. Janelle Monae - The ArchAndroid
This is some ambitious stuff. We're talking about an afrofuturistic sci-fi concept album that dips its toes into just about everything including hip hop, glam rock, funk, bubblegum, psychedelia, big band jazz, classical, and cinematic orchestration. It's almost kind of scary to think of where she could go from here.


12. Joanna Newsom - Have One On Me
If you can't stand Joanna Newsom's voice, then there's a lot to hate here. A triple album's worth. I actually enjoy Ms. Newsom's voice, and find this record to be her most mature release yet, and her most accessible. She's the closest thing we have to a Kate Bush or a Joni Mitchell these days. And I really like Kate Bush and Joni Mitchell.  And can you really beat "Good Intentions Paving Co.?" No, you can't.


11. The Hold Steady - Heaven Is Whenever
Everyone spent so much time concentrating on what was missing from this record (after departure of Franz Nicolay) that they didn't spend time concentrating on what is there. And there are some fine rock songs here. And as always, THS remains one of the few bands that really understand the idea of a cohesive album. It's a lost art.  But I do miss Franz.  *sob*


10. Vampire Weekend - Contra
You really can't beat "Cousins," one of the best songs of the year.  People love to hate on these guys, but I really don't really get that. I hear a lot of similarities to the early Police, and folks seem to like early Police just fine, even now. These guys know what they're doing. 


9. LCD Soundsystem - This Is Happening
This one just sounds good to my earholes. I had zero expectations a was quite simply blown away. I'm not really sure why this record isn't more of a massive Moby-sized crossover hit or why it hasn't been licensed for every TV comme
rcial in the world.


8. Bob Dylan - The Witmark Demos: 1962-1964 (The Bootleg Series Vol. 9)
Is there anything quite as awesome as listening to tapes of a young Bob Dylan (and his guitar) performing his early songs so that his publisher can shop them around? I didn't think so.


7. The National - High Violet
Both The National and Vampire Weekend had the challenge of following up records that were pretty much perfect in their respective fans' opinions. Where both may have exceeded expectations with a handful of tracks, the full albums didn't quite pack the same punch as the previous releases. Some of the stuff here, such as "Bloodbuzz Ohio," "England," and "Terrible Love," stand up as some of their best songs, some tracks may have not cleared the bar. Regardless, a not so great National song is usually a good song by any other standards.  A solid record.  And "England" may be their best song ever.


6. New Pornographers - Together
I've said it before, they're our Fleetwood Mac. So many great talents packed into one band, with three fantastic singer-songwriters, but each song is always distinctive as a New Pornographers track. I hope they never stop making records together.  Another stellar addition to a stellar discography. 


5. Spoon - Transference
One of the most consistently good American bands with one of their strongest records. If I have any complaint, it's that it's front-loaded with awesomeness, which makes a full listening a little anti-climactic. Spoon are a rock band that excels in something that very few rock bands do well, and that's restraint. I find myself marveling at their ability to hold back and build tension by NOT playing, where other bands would be noodling away like idiots.


4. Jamey Johnson - The Guitar Song
I had no idea that I would like this album as much as I do.  This is a very honest, and raw work of beautifully crafted and brilliantly executed country music. It may be the finest piece of Americana since Lucinda Williams' "Car Wheels" record. It is a double album, for crying out loud!  Who does that in country music? If you can honestly find fault with this record, then you really need to let your guard down and stop acting like you're so damned hip.  Jamey Johnson is so much cooler than you are.


3. Bruce Springsteen - The Promise
There was not a proper Springsteen release this year, so let's pretend that this is it. In actuality, these are 'lost' recordings from the 'Darkness on the Edge of Town' sessions. And Springsteen outtakes destroy most artists' actual releases any day of the week.  What do you know?  Springsteen is back in vintage form.


2. Grinderman - Grinderman 2
The album imagery speaks volumes about this record. It's a wolf standing in what appears to be a penthouse or mansion. Marble, mirrors, flowers and statuettes. Nick Cave in a setting which we don't often find him. A grown man, a cultured man, who might just chew the leg off the sofa before the night's over.  This record is just good old raunchy, visceral rock with an erection.  It's a lot of fun.


1. Arcade Fire - The Suburbs
I believe this to be the most fully realized work by a rock band in 2010.  I spent more time listening to this record than any other.  It was a slow-grower with me, which always fares well for a record's longevity in my book.  This is a band in their prime with a strikingly distinct sound and vision. I think they may be the closest thing this generation has to an E. Street Band.



Honorable Mentions:

Erykah Badu - New Amerykah Part Two: Return of the Ankh
Jenny & Johnny  - I'm Having Fun Now
Broken Social Scene - Forgiveness Rock Record
Superchunk - Majesty Shredding
The Books - The Way Out
Les Savy Fav - Root For Ruin
Bonnie "Prince" Billy & The Cairo Gang - The Wonder Show of the World
Phosphorescent - Here's To Taking It Easy
My Chemical Romance - Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys
The Secret Sisters - Silver Threads And Golden Needles
Kurt Wagner and Cortney Tidwell Present KORT - Invariable Heartache
Envy - Recitation
Best Coast - Crazy For You
Decoration Ghost - The Haze of Wine and Age
Wavves - King Of The Beach
She & Him - Volume Two
Tindersticks - Falling Down A Mountain
The Love Language - Libraries
Field Music - Measure





 
]]> <![CDATA[Herschel Weiner Is Now Twatting]]> https://www.happyrobot.net/words/thewayiseeit.asp?id=10085 Ladies, gentlemen, and robots,

I apologize for being absent from these fine pages for so long.  I've been taking a Twitter class.   I look forward to sharing with you some of the great many things that have perturbed me since we last met, but until then, enjoy my twats.

Sincerely,

RCHW

]]> <![CDATA[on being perceived as being a condescending elitist when it comes to religion]]> https://www.happyrobot.net/words/thewayiseeit.asp?id=9932 i think we owe it to ourselves to lift up the hood and really take a look at what we believe, and why. it's never pretty when we are honest about belief. it's easy to hit a nerve, and it's hard to not resort to verbal aggression when nerves are struck. i know. i do it all the time.

i get in a lot of discussions about religion, including my lack of it, its encroachment on public policy, or its frequent role in denial of basic human rights around the world.  i am misunderstood a lot of the time. this religion stuff is complex, and i have very complex feelings about it. it's easy to be misunderstood, and i realize that goes both ways.

although folks like hitchens would disagree, i never in a million years would believe that religion is a poison or a cancer.  to believe that would be to deny my very existence. i firmly believe that religion has been a powerful force in the shaping of human societies. i firmly believe that without religion, i would not be here writing this right now. i know that religion, along with evolved moral codes, has allowed many societies to become more cohesive, to flourish, and to survive. yes, religion has also been a great force of suffering in history. nothing is black and white. everything that is good in our world can also be bad, and every shade in between.

i do not for a second believe that religiosity cannot coincide with intelligence. some of our greatest minds have been devoutly religious. my parents are two of the wisest and most intelligent people i know. my family members, relatives, and many good friends who are religious are way more intelligent than i could dream of being. i also know many non-religious folks who are morons. quite a few.

religion covers a broad range of ideologies and belief systems. and certainly we cannot talk about religion without talking about evolution. after all, everything evolves, including religion. it began somewhere, just like anything else. not only did it evolve, but it played a role in our evolution. this is true and we have the evidence to prove it. as such, i find it just as open to study and dissection as the fields of geology, biology, cosmology, psychology, anthropology, or sociology. when we do look at religion from this perspective, and looking at the vast range that religion covers, we can make the association of certain religious beliefs to knowledge. we know for a fact that religion evolved partially as a means to understand the world in which its practitioners lived. when humans could not understand weather events, the reasons behind night and day, or why people get sick, they explained them with religious beliefs. throughout history, even as we gained more understanding about life and the cosmos and stopped believing that the gods controlled lightning or that demons caused malaria, we still looked to religion to explain more complex things that elude(d) our understanding. even today, as sore as it makes people to hear or read it, there is research that shows the associations between broad ranges of religious belief and knowledge/education. as un-pc as it may be to point out, the more primitive fundamentalist beliefs (whether christian, muslim, judaism, etc.) are are more often associated with the less educated. the less primitive the beliefs, the more educated the believers (or non-) are. there is data to support it. to deny the connection of these associations is to deny that practitioners of currently practiced tribal rituals to oust an illness-causing demon are doing so partly due to lack of knowledge about human illness and biology. we also have to understand that way before the abrahamic god came on the scene, there were countless primitive religions that covered the earth. why is it that it took so long for monotheism to take hold if we are to believe that the abrahamic god himself created us in his own image to follow him? that is a long, crooked path (with endless forks and dead ends) away from him to only come back in the last few thousand years (mere seconds in the time-line of human history).

you can infer what you will from the above statements. do i believe that believing in the genesis creation story (in a literal sense) is due to stupidity? no. do i believe that believing in the genesis creation story shows a lack of knowledge about what we have learned about life, the earth, and the cosmos? yes. i believe mostly, however, that people cling to literal biblical interpretations mostly because of willful ignorance. people do not want to invest in understanding the oceans of data supporting evolutionary theory and natural selection. they do not want to consider the mountains of transitional species in the fossil record. they do not want to appreciate the vast, unimaginable stretches of time involved in evolutionary change. it is difficult for people with our lifespans to envision even 1,000 generations, much less hundreds of thousands, or millions. we look at our own children as they grow and do not notice how much they have changed until we look at a photo from the recent past. the change that occurs so slightly from generation to generation over millions of years is impossible for us to fathom.

we are usually told the stories of religion at a young age. we believe them because they are as true to us at that age as is the sky being blue. as we grow older, to unlearn certain stories, or even the literalness of certain stories is like denying our very existence. we fear we will slip down the path to not knowing ourselves; admitting one thing in the bible is not true will make the entire house of cards collapse before us. this does not have to be true. francis collins of the nih, and former head of the human genome project consistently speaks of the coexistence of religion and evolution.  he is at once an evangelical christian and a staunch proponent of evolution.   these things are not irreconcilable. 

i realize that the above could further cement the impression that i believe that fundamentalist christians (or muslims, or hasidic jews, etc.) are ignorant, and that i am evolved and more knowledgeable. i don't know why i am how i am. but i can say that i have gotten here not without an incredible amount of research, soul-searching, self-education, and a daily thirst for further understanding the mechanisms that dictate the way life works, how the cosmos behaves, etc.

i would never say that there is not some supernatural force out there that has set it all into motion. i do not know this. there are always things that humans will not understand about the cosmos and about life. but because we cannot explain things does not mean that we must ascribe those things a supernatural origin. i don't know for sure that pixies do not live in the forest, but i have to assume that they do not until i have something that proves to me otherwise.

but the fact that i don't entertain supernatural explanations about the world does not mean that i believe that anyone who believes in demonic posession, or ghosts, is not intelligent. they're certainly entitled to believe those things. i may wonder, however, if they have really ruled out all other possibilities. i may get upset if my tax dollars go to fund ghostbusters, and i may become vocal when public school science teachers begin teaching that ghosts are just as plausible an explanation as changes in air pressure to explain why a door in my house can shut on its own. i may even ridicule him. but that doesn't make me a condescending elitist.  however, that will not stop the ghostbusters from thinking i believe they are stupid. 

and so it goes.

]]> <![CDATA[my top 3 time travel fantasies]]> https://www.happyrobot.net/words/thewayiseeit.asp?id=9883
1. tom tancredo and his entire tea party audience are unknowingly transported to mexican texas, year 1830, where united states citizens are barred from immigrating.

2. patrons of the creation museum, who are learning of the earth's creation 6000 years go, are unwittingly zapped to sumeria, c. 4000 bce, where glue is being invented.

3.  abortion doctor george tiller's killer scott roeder is transported to his in utero state of october 1957, where he is voluntarily aborted.




]]> <![CDATA[eleven new tv show ideas]]> https://www.happyrobot.net/words/thewayiseeit.asp?id=9856 1. america's next top shut-in

2. so you think you can breathe?

3. extreme homewrecker

4. how it's extracted

5. celebrity amputee

6. organ swap

7. ebola cab

8. jersey sore

9. wheel of extortion

10. who wants to see my underwear?

11. say yes to the burqa
]]> <![CDATA[on turning 41]]> https://www.happyrobot.net/words/thewayiseeit.asp?id=9831 I turned 41 last Friday. A few thoughts:

If I am to reach the current U.S. life expectancy (unlikely), my life is 52.5641% complete.

Although I support a woman’s right to choose, it’s awesome I wasn’t aborted. I’m available for Super Bowl ads.

I have outlived Sylvia Plath, Bruce Lee, Karen Carpenter, Keith Moon, Chris Farley, Jesus Christ, John Belushi, Charlie Parker, Bob Marley, Lady Di, Marilyn Monroe, Anna Nicole Smith, Malcolm X, and MLK. Suck it, y’all!

I play video games, read comic books, and still laugh at farts. Some things you can carry to the grave.

I now go to more wakes than weddings. I suspect this trend will continue. At least until my wake.

Based on observations from the Hubble Space Telescope, there are at least 125 billion galaxies in the universe. It is estimated that at least ten percent of all sun-like stars have a system of planets. There are 6.25×10 (to the 18th power. i don't know how to make that on the computer. i'm old) stars with planets orbiting them in the universe. If even a billionth of these stars have planets supporting life, there are some 6.25 billion life-supporting solar systems in the universe. I don’t have a point, except, stop acting like you are owed anything. Get your head out of your ass already.

I can’t wait until I get to have sex again next year!

]]> <![CDATA[the 40 very best records of 2009 based on some arbitrary criteria]]> https://www.happyrobot.net/words/thewayiseeit.asp?id=9808 with the rise of the interwebs, and twitter, and facebook, and every magazine and blog under the sun (and in darkened dorm rooms), there certainly is no shortage of end-of-year music lists.  i actually believe there may be more end-of-year music lists than there were records released in 2009. 

regardless, i pulled together a list of the records that i thought were the best of 2009.  these are the records that i simply enjoyed the most, with some weight added (or subtracted) based on some vague factors like: execution, craft, expectation (or lack thereof), originality, and, of course, the use of auto-tune.

i feel obligated to disclose the fact that this was one year that i felt quite out-of-synch with a lot of the music-listening public.  so many of the records that people went ga-ga for this year did very little for me, and quite often just confused me.  for the most part, i took this as a sign that i'm growing old and am settling into an oncoming, lengthy appreciation of 'dad-rock,' and telling kids to turn that racket down.  so, if you find any glaring omissions here, you can probably assume that i did listen to it, and it simply didn't do it for me.  i listen to a shit-ton of music.  probably at least five hours a day.  often while working.  and i'm sure that my listening environment has a lot to do with my tastes.  if you only listened to music while at the dentist, then i'm sure your idea of tolerable would change somewhat. 

so, here goes.  a best-of-the-decade list is on its way soon.

1  Yo La Tengo Popular Songs
2  Dananananaykroyd Hey Everyone
3  Neko Case Middle Cyclone
4  AC Newman Get Guilty
5  7 Worlds Collide Sun Came Out
6  St. Vincent Actor
7  The Phantom Band Checkmate Savage
8  Dirty Projectors Bitte Orca
9  Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit
10  Brendan Benson My Old, Familiar Friend
11  Wilco Wilco (The Album)
12  Allen Toussaint The Bright Mississippi
13  Meat Puppets Sewn Together
14  Yeah Yeah Yeahs It's Blitz
15  Califone All My Friends are Funeral Singers
16  Dinosaur, Jr. Farm
17  Andrew Bird Noble Beast
18  Phoenix Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
19  Polvo In Prism
20  Asobi Seksu Hush
21  Japandroids Post-Nothing
22  …And You Will Know Us by The Trail of Dead The Century of Self
23  Beck Modern Guilt
24  Cinemasophia Fits & Cycles
25  Sondre Lerche Heartbeat Radio
26  The Clientele Bonfires of The Heath
27  The Dodos Time To Die
28  Lou Barlow Goodnight Unknown
29  Jason Falkner All Quiet on the Noise Floor
30  Antony and the Johnsons The Crying Light
31  Bob Dylan Together Through Life
32  The Very Best Warm Heart of Africa
33  Jay Reatard Watch Me Fall
34  Alela Diane To Be Still
35  Bill Callahan Sometimes I Wish I Were An Eagle
36  Buddy and Julie Miller Written in Chalk 
37  Bonnie Prince Billy Beware
38  M. Ward Hold Time
39  Ida Maria Fortress Around My Heart
40  John Zorn O'o


]]> <![CDATA[predictions for 2009]]> https://www.happyrobot.net/words/thewayiseeit.asp?id=9408 1. there will be some explosions.  religious extremists will blow some things up, most likely in the middle east region.

2. 2009 will begin with a recession.  it is not clear how long it will last, but you can bet on it causing a lot of problems.

3. some famous people you really admire will die.  also some that you will pretend to have admired, and even some you thought were already dead.

4. we will finally see a black president in 2009.  sometime in late january, you can expect to see history be made. 

5. america will be obsessed with celebrity babies.  most likely, some famous people will become pregnant, and some of them will give birth in 2009.  i see many magazines becoming interested in obtaining photos of these celebrity offspring.

6. some politicians -- republicans, i believe -- will say some things that will be considered unfortunate by the media.

7. sometime near the end of 2009 there will be a war on christmas.

8. 2009 will be a big year for movie sequels.  i am seeing large dollars for a few movies with "2" or "3" in the title.  possibly the prefix "re-".

9. a sports figure signed in the off-season for a large sum of money will under-perform.

10.  at least two men will murder their wives and then join the search party, lying and crying in front of cameras.  they will later be arrested and charged with murder.  at least one case will be featured prominently on nancy grace.


]]> <![CDATA[The 25 Records That Made 2008 Not Suck As Bad]]> https://www.happyrobot.net/words/thewayiseeit.asp?id=9397 In a year in which we found ourselves obsessed with charts and graphs, political, financial and otherwise, this was a year of music on the bell curve.

Remember the teachers that graded on a bell curve?  They would ensure that only a few would receive top honors, and only a few would flunk, and most everyone else would find themselves ranked as somewhere between good, average, and ok. 

When I thought back at the music that helped to distract me from a recession, endless layoffs, friends dying from cancer, and an increasingly nasty (and long) presidential campaign season, I realized that most everything that came to mind was simply 'good'.  I didn't hear too many records that blew me away, and I didn't hear too many that were flat out horrible.  I even enjoyed "Chinese Democracy" to some degree. 

Maybe we're tired.  Most artists, one would think, have been going to the well of frustration, anger, and disillusionment for 8 long years now, and, well, maybe that well is dry.   And that's ok now.  I hope?

1. Drive-By Truckers - Brighter Than Creation's Dark (New West)
There are very few great rock bands today comprised of multiple top-tier songwriters. I would count The New Pornographers among them. And like The New Pornographers, we should count our lucky stars each time they come together and record an album as a unit, instead of imploding like so many other bands overflowing with talented songwriters: see Jayhawks, or Uncle Tupelo. Although the Truckers lost one, the brilliant Jason Isbell, Shonna Tucker has stepped up, and the band has overcome that temporary setback to record a 75-minute opus. Mike Cooley delivers several of the finest country songs that will unfortunately never see the light of day on country radio. Patterson Hood continues to produce some of the most honest depictions of hard-working Americans this side of Bruce Springsteen. And although a handful of the 19 tracks could possibly have been put aside to create a leaner, meaner record, not one is a stinker. Although it takes repeated listens before the record fully reveals itself, it is one of the few from 2008 that I feel we will look back upon as a true classic. And it is one of America's finest bands redeeming themselves after a significant loss, through good old hard work and a return to their roots.

2. Bob Dylan - Tell Tale Signs: The Bootleg Series Vol. 8 (Colimbia)
This one almost feels like cheating on a best-of 'album' list. The 8th in a series of sanctioned releases of previously unavailable work, "Tell Tale Signs" is essentially comprised of recent Bob Dylan throw-away tracks. I remember remarking to someone that it says a lot about Bob Dylan that his album of discards towers over most other artists' bona fide releases. Not only is the record simply a stellar listen, we also get to peek behind the curtain to hear different arrangements, sometimes almost unrecognizable, of works that we have become familiar with through other interpretations. I count Dylan's last three records among his best, and these outtakes from his recent output would have been welcome additions to any of those records.

3. TV on the Radio - Dear Science (DGC/Interscope)
TV on the Radio, until this album, have never quite clicked with me. I enjoyed their previous records a good deal, but I always felt that they were a band still in search of a musical identity. The songs were purposefully messy. But beneath the racket, there were usually some infectious melodies, and interesting lyrics. But they always seemed like a work in progress. This record finds TVOTR settling into a comfortable accessible groove, somewhere between dance music, funk, and avant-garde rock, with nods to Talking Heads, Prince, Pere Ubu, Peter Gabriel, and others.

4. Parts and Labor - Receivers (Jagjaguwar)
This one came out of nowhere, and completely blew me away upon first listen. "Receivers" is a wet dream for any old school Rush or Yes fan that can't stomach the goofy lyrics and cheesy execution of actual progressive rock bands. Somehow, though, they seem to work in vocal melodies and harmonies you'd more likely hear in "Godspell" or a Byrds album. It really works.

5. Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes (Sub Pop)
The best way to describe Fleet Foxes to the uninitiated is to say that they sound like a gentler, early My Morning Jacket, except better. Some of the vocal arrangements and harmonies, however, verge on greatness, reminding the listener of "Smile" and "Pet Sounds"-era Brian Wilson melancholic beauty.

6. Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend (XL)
Vampire Weekend was surely voted Most Likely To Succeed by the Class of '08. Basically, if you liked the Police, "Graceland", and the Talking Heads, you like Vampire Weekend.

7. The Hold Steady - Stay Positive (Vagrant)
Not sure how you follow up "Separation Sunday" and "Boys and Girls In America", two of the best Rock meditations of American youth since "Born To Run". It seems they decided to go a bit melancholy, and go a bit meta. The uninitiated might need a primer to get all the references to previous characters and places in The Hold Steady's growing mythology. It's a solid record, one that takes several listens to open up. But it's so hard to not judge a record against it's older siblings, especially when they were crowned the homecoming queen and king.

8. Fucked Up - The Chemistry of Common Life (Matador)
I really began to lose myself in this record during the late heat of the 2008 presidential election. At the time, it seemed to be the only music that simultaneously mirrored my growing restlessness and anxiety and worked as a release for that very thing. The record is a sprawling orchestral art-punk, post-hardcore meditation on religion and of birth, life, and death.

9. Elbow - The Seldom Seen Kid (Geffen)
There's this sub-genre of bands that have been winning me over the past decade, and I have no idea how to refer to them. Bands like The Delgados, Engineers, and The Earlies. They seem to be unconcerned with image or popularity, but simply interested in making serious, melodic, complex, orchestral, rock music. Equal parts Pink Floyd (minus the pretension) and Flaming Lips (minus the goofiness).

10. Lambchop - OH (Ohio) (Merge)
Arguably their most solid release since 2000's "Nixon", Lambchop's "OH (Ohio)" doesn't blaze any new paths. With Lambchop, you almost prefer the comfort of the old worn shoe. It's a continued progression down the same quiet, contemplative, lush countrypolitan path. At times I long for the more rambunctious Kurt Wagner. But when he keeps cranking out such great stuff, it's hard to ask for anything else.


11. Mercury Rev - Snowflake Midnight (Yep Roc)
Mercury Rev started to become a bit too precious on their last few records. The records began to become increasingly one-dimensional, losing much of the adventurousness that had won me over in the early 90s. They seem to have gotten their mojo back, and not by returning to a working formula, but rather expanding upon it. They have lost some of the endearing messiness of "Boces" but have gained an otherworldliness through use of electronica, waves of percussion, and a larger sonic palette.

12. Winterpills - Central Chambers (Signature Sounds)
This Northampton, MA quartet follows in the footsteps of Ida, Low, and Innocence Mission, in making powerful, plaintive, chamber pop. It's beautiful stuff, equally heartbreaking and uplifting.

13. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!! (Anti)
Nice to see Nick & Co. still have their mojo. This is an artfully relentless collection of songs, continuing in Cave's growing oeuvre of gritty contraptions devoted to lowlifes, urchins, and thieves.

14. Amadou & Mariam - Welcome to Mali (Because UK)
Probably the one record this year truly deserving of the adjective "refreshing". You know how you used to wonder why bands from America could be so loved in countries where most people couldn't understand the lyrics? Well, this is that in reverse. Quite simply a great pop/rock record. Made me wish more American bands would pay attention to what's coming out of Africa.

15. DJ /rupture - Uproot (Agriculture)
Hands down the best electronic release I heard this year. Not as aggressive, abrasive, or instantly enjoyable as DJ Shadow's "Endtroducing", but as artful, as sprawling, as well-conceived, and as well-executed as that now-classic masterpiece.

16. M83 - Saturdays = Youth (Mute)
2003's "Dead Cities, Read Seas & Lost Ghosts" took my head off. It was, and still remains, one of best electronic releases I've ever heard. That being said, M83 is moving on. The duo is not interested in treading water. This time around, they are trying their hand at a more accessible sound, influenced by Cocteau Twins, Kate Bush, and others. Initially, i was let down by this record, and I still long for the sonic mindfuck of 2003, but as a purely enjoyable and aesthetic piece of work, this will do just fine.

17. Blitzen Trapper - Furr (Sub Pop)
What a weird band. You could probably elicit the same response playing this for a Grateful Dead fanatic as you'd get playing it for a Pavement aficionado. Like My Morning Jacket, Blitzen Trapper seemed to have tapped into that bizarre netherworld between Freedom Rock and indie rock, and I don't think anyone quite realizes how difficult that is to pull off. Blitzen Trapper does it as good as anyone, and they keep getting better.

18. Grails - Doomsdayer's Holiday (Temporary Residence)
I've become bored with Mogwai, Sigur Ros, and all those post-rock bands with extremely long names. Enter Grails. They came to that same party, but they brought a big fuckin' truckload of Eastern instruments, a huge-ass bong, and some microdots.

19. Juana Molina - Una Dia (Domino)
On Una Dia, Juana Molina is interested in creating fascinating music out of the layering of sounds, loops, vocals, and a wide array of instruments. The result is hypnotic, never dull, and mostly quite beautiful. Camille and Bjork have ventured into similar territory, but Juana Molina is certainly capable of holding her own, and the results here are arguably as good as what either has offered up recently.

20. Metallica - Death Magnetic (Warner Bros.)
Quite simply a return to form, and one of the most enjoyable rock albums of the year. As goofy and as over-the-top as these guys can be, and as bad as some of their recent records have been, this is a solid offering right up there with the records that made them a household name to begin with.

21. Beck - Modern Guilt (Interscope)
As far as Beck records go, this one is a minor chapter in a career of mostly stellar releases. It seems awful slight, coming in under 40 minutes. But even a slight offering from Beck is usually more interesting than most of what gets put out these days.

22. Earth - The Bees Made Honey in the Lion's Skull (Southern Lord)
Take one of the slowest, sludgiest bands on the planet -- one that serves as godfather of sorts to the drone rock that spawned most of their Southern Lord label-mates -- and throw in avent-jazz guitar legend and one-time Naked City guitarist Bill Frisell, and you have one hell of a party. Granted, it's a barbituate party, but it's a killer. It's like dying a slow, dreamy, aural death.

23. Lil Wayne - The Carter III (Cash Money)
Yeah, I was surprised, too. I come from the school of thought that Hip Hop hasn't produced any truly great major acts since the days of Public Enemy, A Tribe Called Quest, and Boogie Down Productions. I miss the cerbral aspect of Hip Hop. Sure, NWA was fun. The Clipse, Kanye West, Lupe Fiasco have done much to raise the bar a bit. But Hip Hop has largely lost it's ability to shake me, to alter my perception. And in a strange way, this record did just that. Not by schooling me, but by being entertaining, exhilerating, and insane enough to not care that I wasn't being schooled. There are some moments of clarity, where Wayne touches (albeit disjointedly) upon the timely (Katrina, race relations, politics), but mostly it's about letting go and taking a crazy ride through Wayne's brain.

24. My Morning Jacket - Evil Urges (ATO)
First listen, I did not know whether this record was a complete disaster or some amazingly bizarre transformation record. I have grown to realize that it is neither, or perhaps both. Although a few songs border on laughable, they somehow are able to (just barely) pull them off. I'm not sure just why I am able to suspend disbelief for these few tracks, but I can. And partially it may have to do with the fact that MMJ have earned it. The rest of the record finds the band in good form, and at times, truly great, following up where they left off with "Z", into a band increasingly more difficult to pigeonhole. As much as I hoped this would be the record that finally propelled them towards legendary band status, this is not that record.  I do think they have that record in them.

25. Q-Tip - The Renaissance (Universal Motown)
It seemed Q-Tip lost his way for a bit. After Tribe Called Quest went their separate ways, he'd show up here and there, but mostly it was a weak version that showed up. This record isn't so much Q-Tip 2.0 as it is a reminder of what we loved about him to begin with. He's breaking no new ground, but with Hip Hop in the sorry state that it is, it's like John Coltrane showing up at a Kenny G show.


Honorable Mentions:

Jay Reatard - The Matador Singles '08
John Zorn - The Dreamers
Stephen Malkmus - Real Emotional Trash
Martha Wainwright - I Know You're Married
Belle & Sebastian - The BBC Sessions
Umalali - The Garifuna Women's Project
Horse Feathers - House With No Name
Lucinda Williams - Little Honey
Vic Chesnutt, Elf Power, and The Amorphous Strums - Dark Developments
Patty Loveless - Sleepless Nights
Deerhoof - Offend Maggie
Rebecca Martin - The Growing Season
Department of Eagles - In Ear Park
Brian Wilson - That Lucky Old Sun
Steinski - What Does It All Mean? 1983-2006 Retrospective
Caroline Herring - Lantana
Calexico - Carried to Dust
Peter Von Poehl - Going to Where the Tea-Trees Grow
Deerhunter - Microcastle
Weezer - The Red Album
Aimee Mann - Smilers
Kasey Chambers & Shane Nicholson - Rattlin' Bones
Santogold - Santogold
Melvins - Nude With Boots
Centro-Matic / South San Gabriel - Dual Hawks
Devotchka - A Mad and Faithful Telling
Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin - Pershing
Tindersticks - The Hungry Saw
The Constantines - Kensington Heights
American Music Club - The Golden Age
Joan as Police Woman - To Survive
Flight of the Conchords - Flight of the Conchords
The Very Best - Esau Mwamwaya and Radioclit Are The Very Best
Gary Louris - Vagabonds
The Whigs - Mission Control
The Dodos - Visiter

]]> <![CDATA[president barack hussein obama]]> https://www.happyrobot.net/words/thewayiseeit.asp?id=9361
i would just like to take a moment to remind you people that i called this shits a year ago.

where my money at?




]]> <![CDATA[i believe i am a vessel for alien communications]]> https://www.happyrobot.net/words/thewayiseeit.asp?id=9106 i'm not a very organized person.  i will write things down on any writable surface.  as one who works from a home office, nearly every meeting i attend is over a conference bridge.  i discovered today, while perusing these scribblings, that there is no way in hell that i wrote these things.  it's as if, during conference calls, i am briefly possessed by alien life forces, and am simply a vessel through which foreign and indecipherable phrases and fragments flow.   i am embarrassed by some of these of these things, and confounded by most.  the only thing i feel i can do is to air them, in the hopes that someone from the seti institute stumbles upon these phrases and recognizes any patterns consistent with intercepted alien communications.  i can be reached via this website. 

the following are actual, unedited notes recorded on various sheets of paper, envelopes, and post-its over the last 90 days:

* they're not offline

* how are we deficient?

* step through our quality gates

* finite number of hours

* fergie tour

* if we're late, they're stuck

* what's the rate card?

* unclassified list, extra mappings

* lunch

* list of everything we check (or wish we could check)

* temper that w/ the impromtu

* structure + control this

* had document for years


thank you for the opportunity to address this in an open forum. 

i am now ready and willing to be welcomed into the loving fold of the star children.

]]> <![CDATA[religious intolerance]]> https://www.happyrobot.net/words/thewayiseeit.asp?id=9087 this story really chaps my ass:

Rep. Monique Davis (D-Chicago) interrupted atheist activist Rob Sherman (transcript and audio here) during his testimony Wednesday afternoon before the House State Government Administration Committee in Springfield and told him, "What you have to spew and spread is extremely dangerous . . . it's dangerous for our children to even know that your philosophy exists!

"This is the Land of Lincoln where people believe in God," Davis said. "Get out of that seat . . . You have no right to be here! We believe in something. You believe in destroying! You believe in destroying what this state was built upon."

the hearing is concerning gov. rod blagojevich's $1 million grant intended for pilgrim baptist church (story here) which obviously sherman believes is a misuse of public funds.

there are more than a few things which really bug me about this:

a) if it had been the other way around (a nonbeliever chastising a believer in a senate hearing), this would be all over the 24 news channels, and yet you can't find much at all in the major news media about this.

b) if davis had made these same comments towards an individual of ANY other belief system, her career would have ended right there and then.

c) despite the fact that people think religion is under attack in america, it still appears that a lot of people believe that nonbelievers do not have a voice, should be ashamed, are detrimental to society, etc.   gays are more tolerated than nonbelievers today, actually. which is great for gays. but really sad for everyone.


i find this intolerance in america to be quite interesting.  it is not uncommon to hear a christian depict the beliefs of muslims (with their 72 virgins and all) as completely absurd.  all religions find something laughable about scientology and its thetans and xenu and whatnot.   wiccans are ridiculed.  the summums are crazy.  mormons.  seventh day adventists.  there are jokes and stereotypes aplenty.  it goes on and on. 

now, imagine you were to forget everything you knew about christianity -- if it were completely wiped from your brain -- and you were taught it again, would it not seem just as absurd?   pretend that there were no churches, or bibles, and you were not surrounded by family of the same religion?  would it not seem bizarre?  a virgin birth.  a heaven and hell.  somebody performing supernatural events, being executed, and being resurrected.   and they died for you, 2000 years before you were born.  one would be lying to admit that this would not sound completely far-fetched.  yet, it is someone of this exact skeptical mindset who is told by an illinois state representative that they have no rights, and that they are extremely dangerous to children.  

if this were simply an outburst by one politician who apparently did not learn anything from their high school civics class, it would be an amusing anecdote.   and i certainly do know of many religious folks from a variety of belief systems who would never malign someone in such a way.  but this outburst is symptomatic of a country with a religious divisiveness as seemingly irreparable as our current political divisiveness.  it is also quite similar, and probably rooted in the same thing: the firm belief that the other side is completely wrong, or absolutely crazy.

how in the hell do you fix that?





]]> <![CDATA[the pot calling the kettle black]]> https://www.happyrobot.net/words/thewayiseeit.asp?id=9029 it's been weeks since stanford scientists published research providing extensive support for the theory that humans originated in sub-saharan africa and radiated outwards. yet, i am still giddy over the news.

i'm currently in the middle of reading the 2004 book 'blood done sign my name', a memoir about the murder of an oxford, nc black man by a white man and his sons in 1970. the book is a fascinating snapshot of race relations in the aftermath of the american civil rights movement.  i keep thinking about this research while reading this book and its descriptions of hate.

although nothing in the world could ever compensate for the atrocious injustices that have been inflicted upon african-americans in america over the last 300+ years, there is a bit of poetry in the fact that those who inflicted these injustices based on perceived inferiority due to skin color may very well be the ones who have mutated from the original characteristics of humans. hateful cries of 'go back to africa', in hindsight, are not only hypocritical, but absurd. talk about the pot calling the kettle black.

the sad part, however, is that this bit of news was but a blip in the news media. and those who who carry around racial predjudices have an unwavering faith in their beliefs and will, of course, chalk this finding up as another in a series of left-leaning junk science assertions.
]]> <![CDATA[the records i loved in 2007]]> https://www.happyrobot.net/words/thewayiseeit.asp?id=8936 2007 was an awesome year for music.  i really can't think of another year in recent memory that produced this many records that i would be willing to call 'great'. 

now, at the same time, 2007 also was a year in which a lot of pure shit came out.  i'm not talking about hannah montana or matchbox twenty, because you and i don't even live in that world anyway.  if you're reading this, you probably don't even know who half the artist are on the billboard top 10.  but you probably do know about 50 bands with either the word deer, mice, or fire, in their name.

also if you're like me, you probably have a love/hate relationship with pitchfork media.  i personally think that they're full of shit most of the time.  i think they're the equivalent of the independent record store clerk that has self-esteem issues and has to always feel like they're outdoing you by discovering the new bands before you do.  the problem with that is simple: there are simply not many good bands out there.  people like bands that are good.  good bands catch on fairly quickly, and there's not much left to listen to.  so, what happens?  independent record store clerk lowers his listening standards and finds yet-discovered bands that are at some level unlistenable.  he is forcing himself to listen to music that he himself really does not enjoy as much as he thinks he does, simply because he doesn't want to admit that he listens to the same music that the rest of us do. 

well, i was probably like that to some degree.  then i realized how most of what i was listening to did not hold up in even a year's time.  i can't tell you how many 'awesome new' bands have not lasted a year on my hard drive before finding their way to the recycle bin. 

so, you may find that my list below is perhaps not terribly eclectic.  well, i will tell you that i feel pretty strongly that these records are ones that i will have gone back to many times in the next ten years.  some, perhaps, for much longer.   life is too short to play those kind of games.  this is music that sounds good in my ears, music that feels genuine, and music that sets out to accomplish something specific, and nails it.


1. the national - 'boxer'
my two favorite records of the year are the two that require the most listens to fully appreciate. neither 'boxer' and 'sky blue sky' offer much in the way of adventurousness or musical innovation. However, these records, created from familiar palettes and themes, are mature and fully realized works that contain no weak moments, and will be cherished many years from now. 'boxer' is a deceptively intricate record, however, and there are layers in the music that are opened up with each successive listen. the lyrics are another strong point of 'boxer', with themes that echo the current state of the nation, of reconciling basic human needs with a complex and volatile world which seems to grow further beyond our grasp every day.


2. wilco - 'sky blue sky'
lots of folks on the interweb referred to this record as 'dad-rock'. well, i'm a dad, and i like rock music, so i guess i really can't take offense, or view the moniker as negative. if what they mean is that the record brings to mind the music of the 60s and 70s, with high production values and a decent level of musical proficiency and technique, then yeah, this is dad-rock. and it sounds really refreshing in a year when you'd be hard-pressed to find a new twenty-something rock band who really understood what a song is, or cared much about a back-beat. call me a fogy, but i'll take this any day over a stack of animal collective and of montreal records. at least until those guys spend a few summers in songwriting camp.


3. josh ritter - 'the historical conquests of josh ritter'
this is yet another record that disappointed upon first listen. after last year's 'the animal years', which contained one of the best songs of the past ten years in the apocalyptic wartime song-poem, 'the thin blue flame', i was hoping that ritter would channel more of his outrage into a more introspective, political, dylanesque record this time around. instead we do get a dylanesque record, but something closer to 'blonde on blonde' than 'the times they are a-changin'. it's a rock record, with more emphasis on the piano than the acoustic guitar. it's a record about love and love lost and love unrequited. and it's awful hard in these cynical days to make a serious record with love as its theme, and have it seem genuine. this is a stunner of a record. it's one that has never gown tired to me yet, and i have played it to death. full of hooks, great turns of phrase, and punch, it's something that you wish would make the radio -- something that definitely would, in kinder times, when springsteen and neil young and joe jackson were regularly seen on mtv.


4. bruce springsteen - 'magic'
there's really not much to say here. either you love bruce, or you just love 'nebraska' and you think his other stuff is stupid. yes, i'm talking to you. listen up. get your head out of your ass, put down your devendra banhart and sit down with 'born to run' or 'darkness on the edge of town'. forget for a moment that the arcade fire exists and just listen. you hear that? that's a saxaphone. remember when people used to like to see a soloist step up towards the edge of the stage instead of turning around backwards with their hair in their face in the dark corner near the bass player? yeah, that's the good stuff. rock and roll. remember rock and roll? all about girls and cars and your shitty job? about giving people a show that featured entertainment and showmanship? this 'magic' record is one of those rock and roll records by one of the best living songwriters. and it's arguably his best since, hell, i don't know. i thought 'the rising' was a beautiful record. anyway, there are real hooks and melodies here, and true sentiment. and if it came in a different cover with a picture of five greasy twenty-something dudes on the front and was called 'black deer parade', you people would be blogging like a motherfucker about it.


5. jesu - 'conqueror'
i think jesu is proof that even though everyone eventually mellows out and matures, you don't have to sacrifice certain aspects of who you are to do so. justin broadrick is the guy behind godflesh, techno animal, and other behemoths of rhythm, distortion, and rage. jesu does not let up one iota in terms of pure volume and power. it is mighty, this record. but there is a beauty to jesu that was not on display in broadrick's other projects. there are hints of melody, harmony, and chord changes that could melt the coldest heart. where godflesh made you want to punch a hole through a wall, jesu's 'conqueror' makes you want to punch through your rib cage, rip your heart out, and then show it to people you love.


6. the polyphonic spree - 'the fragile army'
i kind of wrote these guys off for a while. you're never quite sure if delaughter can continue to pull it off -- this seemingly one-trick pony, gimmick-band. but i swear, this record contains some of the best multilayered, complex pop arrangements, and pure brio, since bands like queen or wings were playing stadiums. you almost have to hate music to not be won over by 'the fragile army'. i don't care how cynical or hip you are, there is something magical going on in delaughter's world, and the polyphonic spree is about as much of a true escape as you can find, musically, these days.


7. jason falkner - 'i'm ok you're ok'
best known for his work in over-the-top power-pop outfit jellyfish, jason faulkner has been quietly putting out solo material for several years. and, of course, he's big in japan, where his records often come out prior to being released in his home country. 'i'm ok you're ok' is, quite simply, a great pop album. it's probably the most introspective and darkest material that falkner has written. like polyphonic spree's 'the fragile army', you almost have to hate music to not find something to admire, if not love, here.


8. jason isbell - 'sirens of the ditch'
one of the best rock shows i have seen in the past five years had to be the drive-by truckers, on their 'blessing and a curse' tour. this, many feel, was the band at the height of its powers. a muscle-shoals rock powerhouse with three guitarists, three songwriters that could go solo and be fine, and enough years behind the outfit that what was showcased live bordered on legendary, by rock and roll standards. when i heard isbell was leaving, i was not terribly surprised, as any of the truckers could do quite well solo. when i saw them that night, i almost wondered how there was enough room in a band for three top-notch writers. however, now that i have had a chance to enjoy isbell's 'sirens of the ditch' for most of 07, have seen isbell solo, as well as the drive-by truckers sans-isbell, and have heard the truckers first post-isbell record in full, i can say that the loss of isbell is our gain, in a way. now we can enjoy both isbell's and the trucker's records, and can look forward to seeing both live. and both are great. 'sirens of the ditch' is as promising a solo debut singer-songwriter rock record as was steve earle's 'guitar town'. you get plenty of evidence that the young isbell is mature enough of a songwriter to write songs and tell stories that can nearly bring you to tears, and you get the sense that he has a vision and a sound that is truly his own, and not simply an off-shoot of the drive-by truckers.


9. spoon - 'ga ga ga ga ga'
spoon is a weird band in that every record they put out ends up as one of my favorites that year, but i always have a hard time putting my finger on what exactly it is that makes them special. i believe what spoon has going for it is pure chemistry and a wonderful sense of restraint. these guys can control a song in the way that hitchcock controlled a scene. their music is very precise, very calculated, and releases just enough information, but not too much, to keep you fully engaged in anticipation at all times. 'ga ga ga ga ga', besides having the worst album title in recent memory, is simply a solid rock album from one of the most solid rock bands on the planet with one of the most solid discographies going. i don't know if you can find a false note.


10. john doe - 'a year in the wilderness'
this record takes the 'surprise of the year' award. i mean, who doesn't like john doe, in theory. we all have an appreciation for him. but jesus, this record is really great. and it was horribly overlooked this year. i mean, it kind of feels like some kind of a celebrity roast with all the people helping out (aimee mann, jill sobule, kathleen edwards, dave alvin, to name a few), but you never once lose sight that this is a john doe record, and that these are his songs, and damn, they're good.
not many can write a song about a horrible multiple murder ('meanest man in the world') that resonates like this. except maybe johnny cash.


11. st. vincent - 'marry me'
i never read her described as such (i'm sure she has been), but i think of st. vincent as this generation's kate bush. or, at least she's on her way with this debut record. she shares kate's sense of whimsy and her virtuosic musical abilities, and her voice sorta sounds like kate's. although kate is more of a piano girl, st. vincent's weopon of choice is the guitar, and she plays it at times with zappa-esque phrasings, teetering between chaos and precision. beneath all the technique and the highwire acts, however, she never forgets that its melody and universal themes that speak to an audience, and the beauty of this record lies in its balance between innovation and tradition.


12. jose gonzalez - 'in our nature'
while not as wonderful as his debut 'veneer', gonzalez's 'in our nature' is still quite a piece of work. whenever i tell folks about jose gonzalez they initially get it in their head that his music is along the lines of alejandro escovedo or something. not that escovedo is not great in his own right, but there are people with names like gonzalez that come from sweden and create quietly intricate, delicate songs that can make your heart hurt. i am usually not fond of cover songs included in albums. call me a purist. but gonzalez gets away with it with his reworking of massive attack's 'teardrop' (or the theme to 'house', for you young kids).


13. new pornographers - 'challengers'
lots of folks came down on this record for being too polished or not rockin' enough. i happened to like it a great deal. i wouldn't say that it's better than 'twin cinema', so in that regard, i guess you could call it a disappointment. but don't you think fleetwood mac had a hard time following up 'rumours'? there are some really beautiful songs here, and, as always, the chemistry between bejar, newman, and case, is special, and i think we're lucky that they come back time after time to create these records when we all know that they do just fine on their own and in other bands.


the below records are also quite good, and i recommend each and every one of them:

lupe fiasco - 'the cool'
radiohead - 'in rainbows'
bjork - 'volta'
steve earle - 'washington square serenade'
patty griffin - 'children running through'
robert plant and alison krauss - 'raising sand'
les savy fav - 'let's stay friends'
m.i.a. - 'kala'
panda bear - 'person pitch'
the besnard lakes - 'the besnard lakes are the dark horse'
menomena - 'friend and foe'
the white stripes - 'icky thump'
deerhoof - 'friend opportunity'
el-p - 'i'll sleep when you're dead'
modest mouse - 'we were dead before the ship even sank'
kate nash - 'made of bricks'


i must also note that 2008 looks to be a great year for music.  i have been lucky to get a hold of several advance copies of some records, and the following i believe may make it to 2008's year-end list:
cat power - 'jukebox'
drive-by truckers - 'brighter than creation's dark'
vampire weekend - s/t
earth - 'the bees made honey in the lion's skull'
nada surf - 'lucky'


]]> <![CDATA[president barack hussein obama]]> https://www.happyrobot.net/words/thewayiseeit.asp?id=8892 i was able to see barack obama speak to a relatively small group of people in portsmouth, nh in december of 2006. this was almost 4 months prior to his announcement that he was going to make a run for the office of president. i'm not pointing this out to give you the impression that i'm incredibly involved in grassroots politics (i'm not), or that, by seeing obama in person, i'm any better equipped to judge his ability to run our country than anyone else (i'm not). i'm pointing this out because, at the time, i was just a dude who had grown incredibly frustrated and embarrassed by the last six years of george w. bush and his gang of douchebags. i was just a dude who seriously was aching for something different, and so i decided to tag along with my sister-in-law to hear him speak. i had seen his now legendary speech at the dnc, and i had read his memoir, and felt that this guy was definitely different than your average dickhead president.

people talk about the rock star quality that obama possesses. it's talked about almost as if it's a myth or a media invention. i don't really like the term 'rock star' when describing a politician. and i think that the obama thing is much more than that. the term rock star evokes a one-way relationship, whereas being in the room with barack obama, you feel that he is grateful that you are there, and that he actually gives a shit about you and can relate to you. this may be a brilliant bit of acting, but if so, it's a damn good one. hearing obama speak that day, i was filled with a sense of pride that i hadn't felt in the past several years. you actually believed the notion that perhaps things can change, that maybe we can salvage our tattered image globally, that maybe normal people making normal amounts of money could actually wrest some of the power back from the upper 2%.

i walked out of that building feeling great. i set up a page on obama's website where i could help raise money for his campaign. i got involved with getting the word out. the day he announced officially he was running was a great day. i watched the speech on youtube very soon after it was given. it was awesome.

then shit started happening. all the hating from the right-wing media, the bad land deal, the 'he's a coke-snorting pothead' stuff, etc., etc. then the donnie mcclurkin fiasco. that one hurt. how could this guy, who i felt believed in almost everything i did, invite a homophobic, ignorant douchebag to perform at one of his fundraising events? oh, then came the backpedaling, and digging himself deeper into a hole. i had friends in the gay community who became irate with me for not condemning him immediately and switching my energy and allegiance to another candidate. part of it was that i didn't want to believe that he would purposefully align himself with a mcclurkin. part of it was that i felt i had invested so much in the guy that i couldn't give up on him. i wrote a letter to his campaign voicing my frustration with the choice to add mcclurkin. i received a considerate, if not completely forthcoming, reply (form letter, of course). barack had really stepped in it this time.

it was that point that i realized that he, or any politician, will ever be able to remain that unblemished, perfect voice of hope and reason – not if he stays in politics anyway. and like they say, you can't please all the people all of the time. not that that excuses any alignment with individuals who espouse ignorance and intolerance.

as a strongly athiest-leaning agnostic, i have a hard time with faith. i do not like to see people believe in something that they cannot prove. (i also have a hard time watching politicians discuss their religious beliefs.) but at the end of the day, after the donnie mcclurkin shit went down, i could not believe that barack obama purposefully meant to further marginalize the lgbt community. i do not believe that he shares those beliefs. i do believe that he would do more than any president in history in regards to supporting the lgbt cause. i do realize how easy it may be for many to just completely write him off as a pandering, two-faced, ignoramus. i accept that, and i think it's completely valid. but i have this faith thing. i also am incredibly forgiving. (bush and co. are out of luck in that department, howevever.) i understand how incredibly difficult it must be for politicians to appeal across all the various demographics that are crucial to their win. and in doing so, i imagine it is ridiculously easy to piss people off, to come off as pandering, or to just put your foot in your mouth or say (or yell, in dean's case) something completely ridiculous that will ruin your candidacy. obama's actions (or inaction) re: donnie mcclurkin were, i believe, the result of poor research, poorly executed campaign planning, and being a fucking politician. he stepped in a big pile of shit and he panicked. if you step in one pile of shit to avoid another pile of shit, you certainly have a soiled shoe, but you still might get into the prom. if you set each of your shoes in both piles of shit, you probably will be going home early. politics is shitty. you could say buh-bye to him for the whole thing, or you can have the faith that obama can heal the wounds he caused with the mcclurkin fiasco, that he can come through on his past commitments.

lastly, it's this: i think being president is kind of like being the spokesperson for a club. we're members of the club whether we like it or not. and if i can't be the spokesperson for the club, then by golly, i want the person representing me, and speaking on my behalf, to be someone who i have faith in to say the right things, to think things through, to speak intelligently, to solve problems, to work with different folks with different beliefs and backgrounds and ideologies. i don't give a shit if the president of my club has carried a gun, run a large corporation, been married to an ex-president, or been the mayor. i don't give a shit. i just want them to be hopeful, have empathy, give a shit about me, to be smart enough to hire the people around them who can do the stuff he doesn't know how to, to delegate, and to be open to change. he doesn't hate gay people. how do i know this? i just do.

yeah, he's already fucked up some. but show me anyone else that you'd trust watching your kid for five minutes, or that you'd trust to make a phone call on your behalf. ok, maybe john edwards. sign him up for veep. it's your club, dammit. these folks are an extension of you. don't fuck it up.

]]> <![CDATA[The Springsteen / Dylan Face-Off Begins Today]]> https://www.happyrobot.net/words/thewayiseeit.asp?id=8811 One sings about honor, the working man, and redemption, the other one sings about redemption, the working man, and honor. They both can claim to be among the most popular singer-songwriters in the world, but who is going to sell more copies of his new album in its first week? That's what everybody wants to know.

On Thursday (Sept. 27), sources confirmed that Bob Dylan's retrospective "Dylan" LP has now shifted from October 9 to October 2. You might remember that, not too long ago, Columbia pushed Bruce Springsteen's album "Magic" back one week from September 25 to September October 2. Let the games begin.

After two months of hype, blogging and bantering, classic rock fans go to stores today to decide the winner in the showdown between Bruce "The Boss" Springsteen's "Magic" and Bob Dylan's retrospective, "Dylan".



One thing is for sure: It's going to be fun watching and listening to the two jockeying for position. Both are notorious for making controversial remarks to generate interest with the fans and media alike.

On Thursday night, Dylan told Funkmaster Flex on Hot 97 that he would embrace the competition.

"I hope they see and understand what's getting ready to happen," he said. "I'm coming October 2. If Bruce comes that day, he comes that day. That'll be great. I think his people are smart, I think he's smart too ... I think they'll move [their release date]. But I'm coming October 2."

Dylan has a history of throwing jabs at Springsteen. In various interviews, he has questioned Springsteen's sexual orientation and described the singer-songwriter's music as non-threatening.

"They like Bruce Springsteen because he's a safe nigga," Dylan said in a 2006 interview with Hot 97.

Springsteen said last week, “I'm King Kong. Dylan is human. Humans run when they see King Kong, because they're scared.”

Springsteen is betting his entire future that he'll beat Dylan on Oct. 2 - the day both artists drop hotly anticipated albums.

"Let's raise the stakes," said the New Jersey-raised singer-songwriter. "If Bob Dylan sells more records than The Boss on October 2, I'll no longer [perform] music solo. I'll write music and put out records as "Bruce Springsteen and the E. Street Band", but I won't put out any more solo albums."

An adamant Dylan insists it's no contest. "If I put out a record that nobody had heard, with no single, and there aren't any on this one – it's just a bunch of repackaged old songs – I'd still sell more records than Bruce Springsteen," he told USA TODAY.

"It's great for classic rock," says Alison Samuels, music writer at Newsweek. "If you're in the store and you buy Bob's album, you might as well buy Bruce's album because they'll be right next to each other."

Says Dean Budnick, senior editor at Relix Magazine: "This is classic rock politics at its best. Even if the showdown is a little contrived, both artists are in on it. They recognize it's a great moment for classic rock."

]]> <![CDATA[herschel's top ten theological questions]]> https://www.happyrobot.net/words/thewayiseeit.asp?id=8790 these are honest-to-gosh questions i have about christianity. if you have the answers, i would appreciate them. please either post them in the comments section, or deliver them via angel, shrubbery, vision in the night, etc.

1. do all of the creatures of the earth throughout its 4.5 billion year existence get to go to heaven (or hell if they're bad)? pterodactyls, neanderthals, budgies, baboons, hummingbirds, puppy dogs, and porpoises...are they entitled to an afterlife? or are they s.o.l.?

2. pre-monotheistic folk. where did they go when they died?

3. monotheism. before monotheism, why did the monotheistic god not make himself known? and did heaven exist at this point in time? if so, was it empty? and if animals do go to heaven, were they always monotheistic?

4. what caused the cessation of major miracles, prophecies, and god literally speaking to humans? the viral nature and popularity of youtube seems well-suited for getting out some new material.

5. according to isaiah 45:18, god created the heavens and the earth 'not in vain...to be inhabited', so we can infer that humans are a great part of the purpose of god. humans have not existed for 99.9999% of the existence of the cosmos. isn't that terribly inefficient for an all powerful dude who made woman out of a adam's rib with the speed of a clown fashioning a dachshund from a couple of balloons?

6. the number of species believed to be in existence today ranges from 2 to 100 million, according to scientists. how did noah fit all of them on a boat, much less locate them? even if, say, half of them, could swim or survive in water, that's still a lot of animals.

7. if the bible is the inerrant word of god, why is it so rife with historical, cosmological, geographical, physiological, biological, and chronological errors and contradictions? if the bible is the inspired word of god, and perhaps some of it is allegorical, how are we supposed to differentiate?

8. why is religious dogma immune to change? nearly every institution, from medicine to science to government, invites and encourages change, enhancement, and progress. the writings of the bible were written at a time when drilling holes in people's skulls was considered to be a wise treatment for epilepsy, migranes, mental illness, and a variety of other disorders. the earth was believed to be flat. people had a very limited knowledge of the nature of the universe. as a result of innovation, change, and progress, amendment, etc., these other institutions better serve society, people live longer, and have a much better quality of life. why must religion remain tied to ancient texts that are immune to progress? perhaps a wiki would work.

9. approximately 33% of the world population are christians. if individuals must accept christ to avoid eternal damnation, why would a supreme being allow 2/3 of the people modeled in his image to fail in this regard? only in baseball would .333 be considered a stellar average.

10. it is safe to say that there are 100,000,000,000 galaxies in the universe. with approximately 10,000,000,000 planets in the universe capable of producing life. these are of course wild estimates, but as accurate as we can be. regardless, it is safe to say that there are other beings in the universe capable of communicating, thinking, feeling – everything we are capable of, if not more. it is also safe to say that life has evolved more than once on any given planet. that being said, do they all have the same god? is there a christ on each planet? are there similar, or identical, biblical writings on each planet? are only 1/3 of those beings aligned with a form of christianity? or is christianity only a product of our planet? how can one arrive at the conclusion that christianity, or any religion, is correct and the others are wrong?

that's all. i'll leave the light on for you.



]]> <![CDATA[the bible: a book review by herschel weiner]]> https://www.happyrobot.net/words/thewayiseeit.asp?id=8780 this is a book that someone gave me many years ago. it's basically an anthology of historical writings, mythology, parables, anecdotal morality plays, and revisionist history.

it's very uneven in style, contradictory in many places. and quite rife with factual and historical errors. aside from the flaws, it seems to enjoy a considerable amount of success and lots of people seem to really like it.

the first chapter contains a neat and quite beautiful story that was used to explain the origin of the universe, and in more detail, of the earth and man. during the time of its initial publication, the people were considerably supernatural in their beliefs and knew little about the nature of the universe, and this seemed to seem a likely explanation as any.

there are some interesting characters in the book. there's one guy noah who builds a boat to house a pair of each of the millions of species to save them from a flood which covered the earth. there's a bush that is on fire that talks. half-way through the book, a new character is introduced by the name of jesus. the book pretty much concerns itself with his adventures throughout most of the remainder of the book. he is magic and is friends with everyone, from prostitutes to lepers to even dead people, who he can resuscitate. the character is interesting, but is quite derivative. there are simply too many other characters in literature that share this character's backstory and character arc for him to be a true original. many of the details surrounding this character can be traced to similar characters such as krishna, adonis, bacchus, osirus, and many others. there is a new twist put on this character, however, and it seems most people overlook the fact that the writers borrowed so much from other works.

one problem i have with the book is with the consistency of a character called god. in the beginning he is a real prick. he does an awful lot of smiting. he also kills a lot of people (somewhere in the neighborhood of 300,000) and commands others to kill even more. he even destroys whole cities (60 i believe). he endorses slavery, human sacrifice, selling of your daughter as a sex slave, and even bashing babies against rocks. but somewhere about half-way through the book the character has a complete 180 degree turnaround and becomes a really nice guy. i don't know if the writers did a good job of illustrating this epiphany and there needs to be more exposition regarding his change of heart.

the last chapter is totally weird and rivals anything william s. burroughs ever wrote in terms of its hallucinatory depictions and surreal narrative.

overall, i felt this book was ok, if you can overlook the above mentioned flaws, and general stilted nature of the dialogue (who really talks like that, anyway?). personally, i don't see what the big deal is. but i didn't really like chuck palahniuk either, and lots of folks really think he's something else.]]>