Not like "War of the Worlds"

I had one of those "Twilight Zone" moments yesterday morning. After I had dropped my girls off for school, my plan was to head straight into the office. I had a ton of work piled up, and I thought that I would skip breakfast and just get these tasks knocked out.

But, the growling in my stomach and a quick check of the time convinced me that it would be a better idea to go ahead and grab some breakfast. Besides, nothing helps me to alleviate stress like bacon and a chance to read the entire newspaper.

So I pulled into Lucy’s Diner, and I grabbed some quarters out of my ashtray. On my way in, I put my change into the USA Today box. There was one newspaper left. And I looked at the date. September 11. Up until that moment, I had not even thought about what day it was.

That’s when I realized that this was the exact same routine I had followed on the morning of the 9/11 attack.

In 2001, Lucy’s was called Ron’s Country Boy. (Same place, same food, though.) And I had just dropped my girls, who were both in elementary school, off for the day. And I remember feeling pressured about the amount of work needing to be done. And I remember reacting to the feeling by deciding to head out for breakfast.

As I walked into Ron’s on 09/11/01, everyone was gathered around the counter. The radio was blasting the local talk radio station (KFRU) louder than normal. So I grabbed a booth and started to look at my USA Today.

I don’t remember if someone asked me, or if I asked someone else what was going on with the radio. But I do remember learning that a plane had flown into one of the World Trade Center towers. I wondered if it was a small commuter plane, or a larger commercial plane. I wondered what kind of mechanical malfunction could cause such a catastrophic loss of control over a plane.

Then the news came about the second plane. The second hit. And reports of an attack in Washington D.C.

My brain and my heart wanted to reject what I was hearing. It seemed like the incident in where they broadcast H.G. Wells War of the Worlds over the radio, and people thought that the radio play was actually happening.

Except that this really was happening.

So as I went into Lucy’s to get my breakfast yesterday morning, I made sure not to sit in the same booth.

Come to think of it, I never have sat in that booth again…

Another older blog that I moved

Mixed in with all of the great things about entering into my 40's, there is one thing that is a definite downer…

A lot of my most important influences are dying.

When Kurt Vonnegut passed away , I was not surprised. But I am sad.

So what does an East Coast based, WWII serving self professed liberal, confirmed agnostic writer have to do with a kid raised in the Midwest who ends up being a pastor? In a lot of ways, everything.

The first of Vonnegut's writings that I remember was a commencement speech that he gave at Cornell University. It was reprinted in one of those awful "Parade" like Sunday newspaper supplements. And I thought that it was one of the funniest things that I had ever read. So I found the book that the speech had been compiled into, Palm Sunday. And every speech, and short story, and article in the book was better than the one before it. And a big part of me felt like I had found someone who was speaking in my voice, because I wasn't ready to yet.

Vonnegut was fiercely intelligent, outraged by world that he saw around him, funnier than you, and desperate to believe that there was some sort of better way to live, that people could somehow rise above what they were currently accepting about and expecting from the world around them.

After Palm Sunday, I found a copy of Slaughterhouse Five. And the things that had only been hinted at in the short writings came into hi-def. Wildly pissed off at the capacity of people to destroy other people (in the way that only people who have lived through carnage like the firebombing of Dresden could be) offended by the trite answers and platitudes offered as justification, and offended and amused by his own limitations…this was the most "human" writing that I had ever read. I was hooked.

I have read everything that the man wrote. In January of this year, I picked up my copy of Slaughterhouse Five again and re-read it for the umpteenth time. And it was more powerful than the first time that I read it.

I feel like I felt when Johnny Cash died. Sad, but exhilarated by the gift that I felt like he left behind. And deeply moved by his influence. So do yourself a favor, and discover this amazing man for yourself.

Here's some places to start:

http://www.vonnegut.com

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurt_Vonnegut

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_b/002-1259292-6125660?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=kurt+vonnegut&Go.x=6&Go.y=6&Go=Go

Older blog moved over from Myspace page

This week seems to be nostalgia music week. Nothing recorded before 1979 sounds any good to me. I go through spells like this.

What was your first introduction to music? Not the rinky tinky stuff that you saw on TV. Music that blew your developing mind and left a permanent imprint. I know exactly what mine was.

It was a home recorded 8-track tape. For those born after 1975, 8-track tapes looked like this.

They were essentially tape loops inside of a plastic cartridge. Every time the tape hit the splice point, the playing head of the machine moved. It made a distinctive "THWOK" sound. I still hear that sound in my head whenever I hear a song that I owned on 8 track tape.

My cousin Bruce sent me an 8 track that he had recorded two albums on. Bruce was my hero. The coolest guy that I had ever seen in my ten years of existence. He was five years older than me. I wanted to be him. He had the thick white belt with the three prongs that only the cool kids had. (Remember, I'm referring to the 70's here.) He had white shoes, like Billy "White Shoes" Johnson from the Houston Oilers. He already had a decent Foghat mustache. My *%^^&*& idol.

The two albums he recorded and sent me were Sweet-Desolation Boulevard and Aerosmith-Rocks.

This is the Sweet. Total glammy image, pop metal sound.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKrCZFUB32Y

This is Aerosmith when they were the best band in America. Kudos to them for embracing the sober lifestyle. Curses on them for the drivel that they have been producing since then.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nAVENQe7suo

I listened to both of these albums today. Only they are CD's. And they sounded just as good as they did 32 years ago.

But I miss the "THWOK."

Learning how to drive this thing

OK, it took a little while to get the seats and the mirrors adjusted. Now I'm ready to go.

Besides posting and pondering on whatever is occupying my brain and heart on any given day, look for lots o' stuff about bands that I love.

I'll also sling up some thoughts on spirituality, and maybe even some of the materials from the courses that I teach.

Promise I'll try to label them clearly so you only need to read what you are interested in.

Hail Vibrania!

Just a test, wot!

figuring out how to make this readable...



almost got it...