The Best Philly Song Ever....

As I fly up to Philadelphia today, I had to remember the best Philly song of all time. I'm sorry folks, I like The Boss, but this is way better than Springsteen's thoughts on the city:



See how many Philadelphia landmarks you can find in the video :).

Some things aren't meant to go together....

I am quite the fan of some of the various Celtic influenced music. I like some of the more traditional Celtic bands, such as Clannad. I also enjoy Iona's Celtic influenced Progressive Rock (sorta Clannad meets Pink Floyd). Then, who can't enjoy the the strains of some good old Celtic influenced punk, like the Pogues, Flogging Molly or Boston's own - the Dropkick Murphys.

However, I while egosurfing for my own last name, I made a horrific discovery. A chimera of shocking proportions. A freak of nature.

I discovered Irish Country Music. No, this isn't another name for traditional Irish music. This is Celtic influenced country - and was absolutely awful.

I'm not a huge country fan, but some of it I do like - I actually like Garth Brooks quite a bit and Johnny Cash as well. Although bluegrass brings out the northeastern prejudices of mine and I can only think of snake handlers and Deliverance, I actually do enjoy some bluegrass influenced folk rock, such as Indelible Grace and Caedmon's Call.

However, this genre sets a standard of just being terrible. What's odd and scary is that it seems to have been around for a while and actually has fans.

I include a few videos below and I apologize in advance if any of my readers are avid Irish Country fans.

Jon's Management Hall of Fame

As I come down to my final stretch for my "Leadership in Times of Change" class, I had to reflect on those whose management strategies and principles I strive to emulate.


1. C. Montgomery Burns -Mr. Burns effectively manages the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant. He also is a civic leader, who participates in the Republican Party of Springfield. He sees the fact that employees are mindless, hapless fools that must be managed ruthlessly. He seems to have paid attention in his mid-Industrial Revolution management classes. I tell you, the world has just gone to pot since they took the kids out of the mills. Now they just hang out at the mall when they could be making stuff cheaper than they do in China.




2. Dr. Evil - Cryogenically frozen in the 1960s, he returns to take over the world and kill people with his "frickin' laser." I want one of those. Plus torture devices made with "frickin' sharks" with "frickin' laser beams" on their "frickin' heads" should be a staple in many more offices. That would cut down on the number of "coaching sessions" needed for inane behavior. Although I loath cats, I'd like to have a companion like Mr. Bigglesworth as well. I learned in my class that building a coalition is a part of managing an organization, I need a team like Dr. Evil's. With FB, Mini-Me, et al - who could go wrong.



3. The Brain - A lab rat turned evil genius. Who'd figure. "What are we going to do tomorrow, Brain?" "The same thing we do everyday, Pinky. TRY TO TAKE OVER THE WORLD!"




4. Dr. Strangelove - A megalomaniac with nuclear weapons. Oooooh. In my class we had to watch "12 O'Clock High," a WWII classic on a dysfunctional bomber unit and review the leadership styles and influence on the team. How about a real leader who knows where the big red button is and isn't afraid to push it :).





5. Darth Vader - If elected President, my first Executive Order will be to replace the wussy "Hail to the Chief" with the "Imperial March." How "frickin' " cool would be to have AF1 taxi in, the stairs roll up and the prez come down with his black cape and the band playing William's epic Imperial March. The State of the Union address usually even puts Ted Kennedy asleep (oh, sorry, that's a 1/5th of scotch...I forgot). But, imagine if Lord Vader was giving the speech.....oooooh yeah.

Remember the Gipper

Some of the worst...

Yes, today is Halloween and much like it brings out the worst of the world's darkside, it's one of those holidays that brings the worst of Christendom to the top of pot. We often are subjected to baseless urban legends about satanic ritual abuse, razorblades in apples and poisoned candy - all of which have a lot of hype and little substance. Discredited kooks like Jack Chick and Bob Larson make their rounds telling outright crap - and then people buy it and feel obligated to spread the silliness around church.

Anyway, in the spirit of the holiday, I offer two of the worst offenders on the nutcase list:

First, Carmen's "Witches Invitation" video. It is 1980s-era tacky and carries a hint of the Satanism urban legends that were rampant at that time. Plus, it also features Carmen - who probably ranks as one of the least talented and cliche musicians of the era. He was to Christian music what David Hasselhoff was to television. The "witch" is hilarious too in this video, looks like such an Anton LeVay clone...and gotta have the Dungeons and Dragons games thrown in there too.




Next, my friends, you probably have seen this at least once in your life. Some people like to give it out to trick or treaters and its distributed far and wide around this time of the year. I have to bring up Halloween comics by the one and only Jack Chick!

Jack is famous for his factually-challenged scare-me-into-salvation comics, that come really close to being offensive - such as his one that claims that the Holocaust was a Jesuit conspiracy. An early edition of his comic "Dark Dungeons" claimed that C.S. Lewis and Tolkien wrote occult books, ROFL!



Anyway, here's the link: "http://www.chick.com/reading/tracts/0058/0058_01.asp"

The "Satanist" killing the cat is a hoot.

While I'm ranting, please let me recommend Snopes to you. Before you ever repeat a story or forward an email with juicy gossip, like "Hotel California" is a Satanic song, KISS stands for "Kids/Knights in Satanic Service," Proctor and Gamble is ran by the Satanic Church, xxxxx Christian singer/celebrity is really a Satanist....and blah, blah, blah...please visit Snopes. You'll find about 90% of the stuff is a load o'crap.

I'm done now. There's a neighborhood of cats waiting for me ;).

In the shadow of the moon.....

Ron Howard's new documentary "In the Shadow of the Moon" has just been released in limited theaters, thankfully one of them was in Tampa. Unfortunately, as there were no takers to go along...I went by myself, but it was a great film.

The best way I can describe it would be that it was like having a cup of coffee with those men who went to the moon. Since it happened recently, I think many of us miss the gravity of that event: the landing on the moon was one of the most historically significantly moments in human history. To put this film in perspective, it's like having a conversation with Magellan, Columbus, Marco Polo or da Gama.

I really enjoyed how the film captured the astronaut's personalities so well. You see a side of them that you don't get just watching mission footage. It was also interesting to see Charlie Duke, I had the chance to hear him speak when I was in Junior High.

The entire documentary was taken from real footage, too. No CGI, animation or artists impressions. All footage was from the real missions.

A quite memorable part was discussing Apollo 8, the first flight around the moon. As the astronauts were orbiting the moon on Christmas Eve, they read Genesis chapter 1. If you look at my blog's main page, you'll see the stamp that commemorated that event.

Visit the Film's website at: http://www.intheshadowofthemoon.com/ to see if it is showing at a theater near you. If not, be sure to rent the DVD.

Hopefully we go back to the moon, and beyond in my lifetime. I missed Apollo by a few years and hope that Constellation can get us there again.

Don't be left behind........

For your dispensationalist friends.




They are available here at the Old Lutheran store

There's part of my sick, twisted sense of humor that really wants a pair.