Doug Van Pelt

Death and Beer

A couple weeks ago (gosh, it's been about 3 weeks now...time flies) my wife and I worked late at the office. Her computer had been out of commission, so we had to use another computer here to add and tabulate the mailing list so the printer would know who to mail the magazines to. I had the kids with me here, and I put them to work organizing merchandise (sizing and rolling up all our new "Worship At Full Volume" tshirts). They were so excited to actually get paid. Fun stuff. I left home with them about 8pm or so. Charlotta stayed behind to finish, because it had to get done that night. She's such a trooper. She's my hero!

On the way home, past the zebras, doe, elk, and multi-point bucks (I'm guessing 25-30...how do they hold their heads up?), we saw many flashing lights. It looked like there were two fire trucks, an ambulance, and a couple police cars. We had the option, fortunately, of turning North right before the accident scene. When Charlotta left over two hours later, she ran into the same situation. The road was still blocked off and a ton of cars were there. When we found out my wife (the nurse) told me that the rescue people probably didn't clear the scene until the coroner got there. Someone died. It was at least two guys in a pickup truck and one of them was crawling from the passenger window to the bed of the truck and fell. Very sad.

A couple days later around noon I was going to meet someone for lunch and I saw a young man parked by the site (which now had a cross, a pole with a "dream catcher" hanging from it, and another pole with a wreath). He was sitting down with his legs crossed in front of the shrine, looking like he was "talking" to his departed friend. I wanted to stop and offer an awkward, "If there's anything I can do" statement, but there was traffic behind me and it didn't feel too appropriate. I slowed down and stopped on repeat trips by the site and have read messages written in Sharpee on the white painted wood. Just yesterday I stopped by for an updated look and saw a beer can, a pack of cigarettes, and a beer bottle.

While it's touching to see commradery like that, with friends maybe placing his favorite brand of cigs there... it's sad at the same time. While alcohol and tobacco sometimes get tagged with the "evil" and "sinister" labels (in some cases deservedly so), they are minor blips on some people's life radar screen -- diluted poison that's ingested in minute amounts and a tolerated habit of some good hearted people. Having said that (just to be balanced), I think it's sad that someone would have a symbol of an addictive substance or two placed on their memorial site. Honesty sometimes begs for an accurate picture or symbol, but these symbols can give off a sad tone to the outside observer.

Context is 95% of the story, I'm sure. What brings a hint of sadness is also the idea that tomfoolery and perhaps drunkenness played a role in the tragic death of this young man. It's one thing to imagine a memorial to CS Lewis featuring one of his favorite cigars and a bottle of his favorite beer; but quite another to see a can of Budweiser next to the memorial of a 18-20 year old young man that was killed in an act of apparent stupidity.

Sometimes commentaries like this can be viewed as eternal damnations and short-sighted judgments on a life they don't understand. Making any statement at all can be construed this way... That's the shortcomings of commentary. The sadder tale is that a circle of friends are now grappling with the loss of a friend whose life was ended so quickly a few weeks ago. My prayer is that these people would be able to grieve openly and deeply, and that the Holy Spirit, Whom Jesus affectionately referred to as "the Comforter," would be right there in their midst, doing His stuff.

Runs, Hits, ERRORS

Whoops! That little round ball rolled right between my legs, as my knees knocked together and my stomach tightened in max embarrassment. An error! Well, I haven't been playing baseball lately, but I did send out a mass email newsletter on Friday. I added a bunch of news to it, so as to keep our online newsletter subscribers informed, etc. In a rash decision to entertain, I included a link that a friend had sent over which featured 10 of the "most ridiculous" photos of black metal bands. You see, many of these bands pose with face paint on and holding old medieval weaponry. Very silly looking at face value. But, when I previewed this content that I was passing on to 6800+ people, I failed to carefully read the commentary beneath the photos. Turns out there was some rough language there. Oops! Bad mistake. I'm sorry. This week's email newsletter will include an apology. I should've taken more care. It was just a wreckless decision on my part.

We just hired a new Ad Sales person here at HM Magazine!
Heather Reynolds is a friend of ours (she helps her husband lead worship at our church -- Calvary Chapel of Austin), and we have confidence that she is going to improve our ad sales here. This will help free me up to do more editorial stuff as well as marketing and promoting the magazine. Tomorrow night here in Austin (at Antone's) I plan on seeing what I think will be one of the next breakout artists of this year and next -- Dan Dyer. A wonderful soulful voice (reminds me of Lenny Kravitz, Aaron Nevill, Charlie Peacock...I dunno -- the man's got soul!!). Interesting lyrics:

"Why are we
so afraid
to go lay down in the river
wash away
everything
so we can be delivered..."
("...of what lies beneath")

I love it!

By the way, we recently added some new content to the website, including the latest issue (Sep/Oct #109) is in the online store available as a back issue.

Cats Must Die

Everything was fun yesterday. The cats just chilled out all day long, and they appreciated the ocassional scratch around the neck. Martha even purred. Carrying both cats (one in each arm), however, turned out to be a challenge when it was time to leave and lock up. My keys were in my pocket, so I sat Martha down to lock the deadbolt. I kept her at bay with my leg, but she tired of that and hopped over my foot. I took her sister (Mary) into the car and turned to call Martha. She was running away from me. If left alone for a night, surely she'd be killed. I sprinted after her (which was 1.5 hours after a mile run for the first time in a long time, so my muscles expressed their anger) and rounded the second corner at high speed, running past her as she stopped behind a bush in the front. Smart cat. I picked her up and talked to her in a cheerful voice, scolding her ever so gently.

When I put her in the car and got in, I smelled it. Cat urine is a horrible smell. I asked Mary if she did a deed in my car, looked around and then down at my shirt -- soaked. I brought it up to smell, noticing my pants were soaked, too. Yep, cat urine. I got out of the car and washed my shirt real good with the hose. I left it there to dry. I'll probably have to throw it away, because that smell doesn't go away easily. I drove home barechested and with a cat standing up to look out the window -- drawing attenting to our car, which was driven by a big belly-ed barechested man. Lots of fun.

Tommy, our neighborhood stray, sits on the fence in the backyard and gets tormented by mockingbirds. He is a wimp. If I was a cat, I tell ya, I'd beat the living daylights out of Martha and I'd kill birds that fly that close to me.

But I'm not a cat, so I will try to pay attention to those people around me, noticing ways I can meet their needs or bless them. If I can somehow do that, then my joy will increase.

Cats In The Office

Mary and Martha (2 cats) are hanging out with me in my office today. I hope they appreciate the air conditioning. Probably not...silly animals.

I hope to finish transcibing an interview for the next issue today. Right now I'm taking care of admin work and previewing some cds (Veni Domine, Letter Kills, Hopesfall, Underwater).

mewithoutYou is playing in Nashville tomorrow and I shipped them a box of magazines to give away as a promotion (or for them to sell and keep the $ themselves), but I got a call today wondering if the box was shipped. It should have been shipped last week with plenty of time to make it by the need-by date.

God created the world. Six days' time. That's a long time when you consider the power of a Creator that can speak things into existence. That must've been a real sight to behold. I wonder what the afterlife is going to be like. Will we see even greater wonders? I've heard that angels surround the Lord and cry "Holy, Holy, Holy!" It is thought that they are astounded and blown away by what He continues to reveal about Himself and His glory. Perhaps He keeps creating...?

I Cheated

So I'm playing Madden 2004 on PS2 and my team is getting wiped out by the Redskins (the hated skins) 50-something to 20-something. I see that there's no hope of winning this game, even though I'm running kickoffs back for touchdowns and scoring on hail mary passes; so I turn the game off without saving. This means that next time I play (I'm going through a season in "Franchise Mode") that I'll be starting over from scratch. A restart, as it were. The next time I do, same thing -- except this time it's 37-0 and they are running away with it, intercepting almost every pass I throw and running it back for a touchdown. It's disgusting. My defense is stopping their offense cold, but their defense and special teams are scoring all the time. So I reset the game again. My record at this point was 3-4, so another loss will "ruin" my season. This time I prevail 17-0 and move on. So, if I ever make it to the "Super Bowl" in this video game, I won't be able to brag that I did it fairly. My bad.

I guess cheating at video games is nothing new, but it is bothersome not to acheive victory the "fair" way. Got an interesting CD in the mail the other day -- Babylon Mystery Orchestra's On Earth As It Is In Heaven, which takes text from the Dead Sea Scrolls and weaves a tale about fallen angels mingling with men prior to Noah's days... Kind of puts rock in an "evil music" category, even though it's rock. Interesting.

Party

Wholly Moses is not a good movie. But that's another subject.

The first ever "New Issue Release Party" (yeah, I know that sounds kinda lame, but it was a good excuse to get together) happened last night. I had not seen Fairfax or The Kirby live yet, so I wasn't sure how it'd go over. I was very pleasantly surprised over both. Fairfax had an energetic pop punk sort of sound. Their drummer, Brandon, really pounds away. The band recently just lost a guitarist and this was their first show as a three-piece. You couldn't tell they were struggling, as it sounded pretty solid.

The Kirby made excellent use of the tiny (12 foot by 12 foot) stage, by chaotically swinging and slamming their instruments at every jerky time change. Their second song had at least 5 substantial time changes in it, making for a crazy schizophrenic tune. Very fun. Our old buddy (and ex-intern), Colin Hobbs plays guitar in this band, which is now managed by Eric Shirey (friend of Pluto Records and current manager of Society's Finest and The Gods).

Local slam poet and crazed band member Peter Nevland showed up, (along with several other friends and longtime supporters of HM) and I asked him if he'd be willing to throw down some spoken word pieces. Since the club was essentially ours for the evening, it was a go. He did a great job. His first piece was introduced as one that was "hard to deliver" without shedding a few tears, as it was still a fresh wound. Turns out it was a hilarious tale about girls, rejection, and red hair.

We almost had Fairfax play two sets (since they only had a 30-minute set), but at 11 o-clock, anyone over 18 and under 21 has to leave.

Back to the Dudley Moore flick, Wholly Moses... Even though he's a crack-up artist, the script really hurts the viewing. I have to admit, though, the plot detail of one baby floating down the Nile shoving another out of the way to be the "discovered" baby is quite amusing.

the Purple Door

I don't believe in omens,
but when I got a high score of 608 on the handheld Yahtzee game we keep in our bathroom, it made me very happy. When you have to wake up at 4:30 am to make an early flight, anything that picks you up is welcome, isn't it? My only disappointment was that the game's highest recorded score was even higher!

My flight to Baltimore to take in the Purple Door Festival was nice and smooth. This year's fest was great. Seeing so many cool and friendly people is always a good time -- even if it rains. For the second year in a row, Blindside did not perform at Purple Door. The same thing happened last year: rain (hard, pelting rain) cancelled their set. Pillar had half of one song done when it became abundantly clear that they couldn't keep the show going (lots of close lightning in addition to the buckets of rain). I heard their drummer played a really long drum solo in hopes of riding out the storm, but it kept getting worse. We laughed about a curse (kinda like the Sports Illustrated "cover jinx" or the Madden Football game "curse") and kept the laughter going indoors under cover.

That all happened on Friday night. Saturday morning kicked off the HM Magazine stage with a bunch of really good bands: Holland, Haste The Day, Beloved, Brandtson, Stretch Arm Strong (who I got to see...which was fun), Squad Five-O, As I Lay Dying, and Project 86 (which I saw 90% of). Project was very "on" and sounded powerful. After making an announcement before the band went on, I stayed on stage to hear and feel the first song of their set. It was good. (I think it was "Hollow") The sound levels on stage seemed louder than the mains. Maybe the enclosed quarters creates a good acoustic environment that the main speakers in the towers can't replicate. Turned out to be a hot show. The very last song, I'm told, turned into a Van Halen-esque moment (think US Festival, 1983), where Andrew Schwab said something to the crowd about being nice and not throwing mud... No sooner had he said this than much of the audience started slinging mud. The sound went off and the entire stage (equipment, gear, etc) was apparently covered with very wet mud.

I spent a good 45 minutes this morning cleaning the mud off the big HM banner, so if any of you Purple Door mudslingers ever come visit the HM offices, I'll put you to work mowing the lawn here or something! (ha)

We're having our first ever "New Issue Release Party" tonight at a club on Sixth Street called The Capitol (7pm to midnight). I'm looking forward to that.

My old friend Paul Q-Pek was in town this weekend, talking to a local church about possibly being their worship leader. I wish I could have been at the service to see how he leads worship. Anyway, he's coming over this morning for lunch. It'll be great to see him again. He's been on the West Coast for a number of years and I haven't seen him in a while. He sang at my wedding, is a dear friend, started the band Lust Control with me, used to hang out and gripe about the 81 degree temp I used to keep my apartment thermostat at (hey, I was surviving), and he single-handedly rekindled my love for movies. This guy loves to hit the theater, grabs a big coke and a giant bucket of popcorn, and finds his seat before the previews. The child-like enthusiasm was contagious.

I hope I can keep that kind of joy present in my life about the many things I'm passionate about, like family, marriage, music, sports, and (truly most important and exciting of all) a vibrant and real relationship with God. Anytime that can be shared in a natural (and not forced) way, it is beautiful and most joyous thing -- even surpassing getting 4 or 5 "yahtzees" in one game!

Pray for David & Ashlee

Please pray that God would heal their bodies. They've both got some wicked virus that's been keeping 'em down.
It sucks to be sick.
Back when I was in school, it was fun to break the routine and miss the school books, etc. But when you're an adult and your body feels like crap, it just doesn't have the "fun adventerous" feel that it did way back when.

I'm packing my bags for the Purple Door Festival, via Atlanta via Baltimore. Speaking of Purple Door, CMRadio will be streaming the fest live all this weekend (starting tomorrow).
You can check it out here.

I put the word out in our mass email newsletter (you can sign up for that on our main page, on the link "Mailing List | Subscribe" at the bottom right...) that we needed some help promoting the magazine (on college campuses and youth groups), and thus far the response has been great. That's so cool. It's really a privilege to be doing this magazine. It's so encouraging to hear that people get edified or excited by it.

I'm praying for wisdom these days. One of the things I'm thinking about is hiring someone to do advertising sales for HM Magazine. It's a job that I've been doing myself for a while and it'd be great to switch hats and work more on editorial. God tells us that if we lack wisdom to ask, so that's what I'm doing. I'm also praying for safety as I travel. The Purple Door festival is held at a ski resort in PA, and it's really a nice spot to be at.

Now I just need to find time to do some shopping for my wife's birthday, which is coming up next week.

PS If you feel led, I could also use prayer about a situation with one of the articles for our upcoming (Nov/Dec) issue. It will be our first "SPECIAL SO & SO SAYS" issue, with a bunch of those type of articles in it. One of the bands I interviewed (I won't say who, cuz that's not cool) apparently freaked out after the interview was over. Seems I brought up religion or some other touchy subject. Surprise, surprise. Anyway, they'd like to recall the interview. What? Their publicist has asked to see the transcript of the interview. I normally don't do that, but I agreed to send it over when I'm done transcribing it. The hope is that the band will calm down when they read that they weren't misquoted or taken out of context, etc. I'm praying that this will work out. So, without getting into it, if you'd like to lift this situation up to God and just ask, "Please help this situation work out," I'd greatly appreciate it.
:?)

Brandtson... "brand-T-son"

I just sent a mass email newssletter out and after I sent it, I looked over the schedule (to pick a band I want to interview live on CMradio's streaming coverage of the festival) and I noticed that Brandtson is spelled wrong. Oops! I shouldn't have pasted that incorrect spelling. I always remember that band's spelling by saying, "brand" followed by "T" followed by "son," kinda like a brand name (T) and someone's son.

I'm trying to get a solid schedule for a daily quiet time going.
I picked up a Collegiate Devotional Bible while cleaning out my garage bookshelf recently. I figured it would be a nugget-sized devotional like a Daily-Reading type Bible, with certain passages (both from the Old Testament and New) chosen for each day. This one is set up like a normal Bible, but the helps section has some tips for devotional reading. Some of their tips include:

-Decide to begin meeting with God daily.

-Set aside a time and find a place that will be free from distractions.

-Decide on a plan so that you will know how much you will read each day.

-Use a notebook or journal to record your thoughts and observations.

Those are good tips. I'm going to try to use this thing. It has a devotional for each day of the week (starting at Genesis), and with passages to read for that day, taking me through the Bible in a year.

I just finished a book, called Blood, Money, and Power, which is about how LBJ killed JFK. Interesting read. It's written by a former attorney of LBJ's and tells how the attorney/client privilege was used to help "superlawyers" stay above the law in a renegade wild west sort of way. Apparently, a guy named Mac Wallace hired Oswald and "Junior" to be the shooters. Wallace was on the sixth floor of the School Book Depository and after Oswald's shot missed, hitting Governor Connaly, Wallace hit Kennedy in the head and was prepared to fire again when Junior's shot from behind the picket fence hit its target and it was obvious JFK was dead. He high-tailed it out of the room, leaving Oswald to supposedly shoot it out with the cops when they arrived. Interesting. I don't buy it, but it's fascinating nonetheless. I hope up in Heaven we get to have "History Nights," where God shows us footage (super high resolution images reflected off the clouds, of course) of mysterious historical events, giving us the truth of what happened in various settings.

Lance Armstrong, the Scorpions

Had a fun day today.
I plan on taking my girls to downtown Austin (again) to take in the giant parade and party that is being thrown in Lance Armstrong's honor.
He's an Austin guy, and it's fun to celebrate such an amazing accomplishment -- winning six Tour de France races . . . in a row!
Wow!

I'm still digging that new Scorpions album. It's the first "buttrock" album I've enjoyed since the ugly death of commercial metal back in '91 or '92. It's really a fun and solid album.

Hebrews 10 has a lot of good things to say. A couple things jumped out at David and I as we peered at it earlier today:
"confidence." The writer of Hebrews (it's Paul, come on!) exhorts us to hold on to the confidence we have. I assume it's confidence in God and His ability to empower us and pull us through whatever circumstances we face.

And this is also one of five places (at my count) in the Word where God promises to not only forgive our sins, but forget them as well.
Wow.
I wish I could forget those things, too.
It's a choice, I believe, He makes (as opposed to an inability to remember. I mean, come on!)

Have a great weekend.

Charlotta and I celebrate our 12th Anniversary on Sunday.
God has blessed us.
He has sure blessed me with a wonderful woman.

One great example of that blessing occured this week, as we faced a critical deadline -- the mailing list had to be turned in to the printer, who was ready to print and ship the new issue out. We worked late into the night, and when it was time to take the kids home, Charlotta stayed alone and slugged away at entering all those names into the database. What a woman! She's my hero in a lot of ways.
:?)

Kristine Martin

Have been listening to some music I thought was "mainstream" or "secular" yesterday and today. Many I have to hear because of intriguing titles, like "Handle The Messiah" by Shave. It's an anti-commercialism rant about the Christmas season. Very interesting. They continue the rant with the next track, "Full Commercial Xxxmas." There's lots of profanity on the album and other lyrics lead me to conclude that devotion to Christ as preeminate in all things is probably not where these guys live mentally, but it is very interesting to see these subjects tackled.

Kristine Martin, on the other hand, has released a faith-infused album with her baby-talk voice a la Fleming & John. I quite like it. The music is tamer than F&J, but quirky in a Sam Phillips sort of way. The tunes are high quality. I'm surprised that her music isn't more well known.

Am trying to compose a business plan for an interested investor that wants to help take HM to the "next level." This would not involve any change in ownership, but could allow us to have the resources to "introduce" HM Magazine to all the potential fans of the magazine that don't know about it or where to get it. Lord willing, that'll help the magazine grow.

My conversation with Mark Morton of Lamb of God over the weekend was interesting. A really nice and soft-spoken guy. I always love it when a brutal band like this has quiet guys playing the ferocious guitars. Mark regards religion as being a very personal subject, one that doesn't get talked about much, per se. He had a fascinating talk with his father about God one time in his young adult youth. It brings up the important subject of how and when do we communicate about spiritual things. Or do we talk about it at all? Another dynamic that made the conversation interesting, and probably effected it in some ways -- was that it was in the eating area for Ozzfest artists. I think I saw Tom Araya of Slayer walk out during the interview. I'm not sure anyone overheard our conversation, but it always makes a difference when other people are within earshot and you're discussing serious issues like God.

Jet

I had a pleasant time at Ozzfest. Judas Priest with original vocalist Rob Halford played some of the classics, like their epic "Victim of Changes," but to me the band sounded like Kiss...

What? You say? Well, they didn't sound just like Kiss, but you know how those old Kiss songs are fun memories and you know all the words and they're written with catchy sing-along hooks? The Judas Priest "hits" of old ("Breaking the Law" and "Living After Midnight") are slow clunkers that could really use some speeding up and a little bit of edge -- you know, that biting little guitar string bend at the tail end of a note? Well, the band plowed through their hits like they were recorded, but it lacked that energy, that pizazz, that passion. They didn't sound like a young or even an old band trying to prove anything. It sounded lazy to me. That's how Kiss sounded to me when I finally saw them all these years later on one of their recent reunion tours: lots of nostalgic fun, but certainly missing the urgency of anything young and relevant. I guess it's hard to motivate yourself to really get out there and bring it, but c'mon! That's what we want!

That's my Priest criticism. Black Sabbath didn't do much better. Their sonic heaviness (and having the loudest sound system mix of the day didn't hurt) was quite good. Nothing too exciting to watch, though. Ozzy, an amazing old geezer throwing buckets of water on the audience constantly was entertaining for awhile. His most endearing quality, like on The Osbournes tv show, was that he's got such a fiesty attitude at his ripe old age (how old is he, anyways?).

While eating a cheeseburger I noticed a few girls that allowed themselves to be painted at the "body painting" tent. Like the temporary tattoo booths, I figured this would be like butterflies on cheeks or symbols on the arms, etc. No, sadly enough it was like those Sports Illustrated painted on bikini tops. Many men oogled as they walked by, laughing it up and having a good time at the girls' expense, but the laughter didn't mask the sadness of it all, as these girls no doubt paid good money with the intention of attracting attention, even though it objectified them. One perspective that always seems to bring some clarity to this kind of scenario is to know that each of these ladies is someone's daughter. They probably grew up in innocence and never planned on willingly being treated like a worthless object. The lyric from "Youth of a Nation" by P.O.D. really says it well, "...too bad nobody ever told her she deserved much better."

Finished proofing all the pages today, making corrections where needed. The Sep/Oct issue should start hitting the actual presses tonight.

Lamb of God + Superjoint Ritual

I'm off to Ozzfest to interview those two bands.
I hope it goes good.
As a bonus, I get to see the classic Priest and Sabbath lineups on mainstage at the end of the night.
Cool.

It might be sad to see the debauch carnival on the fest grounds.

How 'bout that picture of the old man, eh?
What's he doing in a skatepark?

Harold & Kumar go to HM

Today is busy, busy, busy.
David and I started the day at a coffee shop.

"Are you sure you don't want to make that an extra-large? For another 25 cents you get an extra shot."

"Okay. I'm sold."

We were there with notebook computers writing. David's been asked to write something by a famous author. I am working on my novel. I'm up to about 13,000 words now. So fun. We plan on doing this twice more next week.

Now that we're back in the office,
David had his Tobymac interview moved from 2pm to 1pm;
and I've been given an interview with Scott Stapp today.
With little to no time to prepare for it, I'm still excited and ready
for it. Should be good.

We've also got several pages from the new issue up on a special website to proof each page and approve or reject each page.
Very busy.

Yesterday we cut out to go see a movie. Sometimes we do this...kinda like a tradition -- go see a movie after deadline.

Earlier that day I had a meeting with some folks that want to make a dvd with us. More info to be shared later.

Looks like I'll be interviewing the bands
Lamb of God
and Superjoint Ritual at Ozzfest tomorrow afternoon.

God is good.

More Than When The Grain And The New Wine Abound...

...Thou has put gladness in my heart.

Those are the words to a chorus I used to enjoy singing a lot. It's interesting how some worship songs seem to embed themselves in certain eras or epocs of time, where they are memories and not part of the usual song repertoir of current get-togethers.

That song underlined the fact that the joy that God gives is wonderful and the fun and exciting things on this earth pale in comparison. This is good to remember when things are going really good and also to remember when things or circumstances aren't that great.

Fed Ex just pulled up. My daughter is at the office today, and I asked her to sign for the package. It was the new Alice Cooper record, The Eyes of... She asked me, "Isn't that the guy on that commercial?"

I said, "Yes," but wasn't sure if she was talking about those Residence Inn ads from a couple years ago.

"It was for that store, Staples. He was shopping for school supplies with his daughter... (This sounded like a good plot for an Alice Cooper cameo, but I hadn't seen it...) She told him, 'Didn't you say, 'School's out forever?'' And he told her, 'No. I said, 'School's out for summer.'"

Then I knew she had the right guy. I hope I can see that commercial soon.

New Blog: Title Here

New blog coming this morning.

Ahh, it's afternoon now.
David's computer is out of commission. Reinstalling windows XP pro is running into snags and missing files. Our printer is probably waiting on us to deliver the last few files to complete the issue. One of our writers left a few cusswords in one of our stories, and we are looking to repost corrected versions of those pages. One of the instances is a reference to how a fan was influenced to change her (expletives) into "gosh darns" as a result of the band's influence.

I also held out as long as I could for an advertising client, who promised that their ad would be delivered in time. I finally designed their ad with a simple url and a symbol from their website.

We also did not get a column turned in this issue in time for publication, so I penned a "primer" of sorts about Christianity and the arts. I hope it works well.

I got a copy of a "galley" version (a rough copy of the final version) of Andrew Schwab's new book -- It's All Downhill From Here. I'm supposed to write a comment or two about it after reading through it. I'm looking forward to reading this. I imagine it will express much of what Andrew told me during an interview earlier this year, about what Project 86 went through during the last two years.