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St. Andrews to leave TEC?

Sorry for the lack of Anglican updates lately. Things got awfully quiet on the Internet after GC 2009, mainly because there wasn’t much to say: TEC went their way and the ACNA went its way.

But here are a couple of stories of interest. The first is that St. Andrew’s Church might leave TEC (possibly to join ACNA):

One of the largest congregations in The Episcopal Church, St. Andrew’s Church of Mt. Pleasant, S.C., may by December become one of the largest congregations to renounce its Episcopal ties.

On Oct. 11, St. Andrew’s will begin a 40 Days of Discernment program to discuss whether it should sever ties with The Episcopal Church. The congregation will vote on Dec. 9-16, after spending a week in prayer and fasting.

The second story is that Rowan Williams says that TEC could face some form of “reduced status” in the Anglican Communion:

While “there is no threat of being cast into outer darkness,” Williams said, certain churches, including the Episcopal Church, may have to take a back seat in ecumenical and interfaith dialogue because their views on homosexuality do not represent the larger Anglican Communion.

Whether Rowan is doing this out of the goodness of his own heart (unlikely) or because he can count (much more likely) in unknown.

via One of the largest Episcopal congregations takes steps to sever ties with The Episcopal Church and Rowan Williams: Episcopal Church could face reduced status.

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My Favorite Bands of 2009

Yes, I know that 2009 isn’t over yet. But it’s getting late in the year, and I’ve already fallen in love with five great bands this year:

Au Revoir Simone (Brooklyn, New York) – Three chicks and a bunch of synthesizers, Au Revior Simone sounds like the illustrations in a child’s book of fairy tales come to life… and I mean that in the best way. David Lynch loves them, and once you hear them you’ll understand why (if Twin Peaks were to be remade today, he’d probably use Au Revior Simone instead of Juliee Cruise for those scenes). This is my favorite song by them by far, and here’s a live version of the same song in HD.

Au Revoir Simone

Asobi Seksu (Brooklyn, New York) – There are so many good bands from Brooklyn these days! This band is two people – Yuki Chikudate and James Hanna, with some friends helping out on occasion. I am completely blown away by this song, which combines the drums and bass from early U2, guitars inspired by the Cocteau Twins, synths from OMD and the kind of breathless female singing made famous by The Sundays and Sixpence None The Richer to create something that not only doesn’t suck, but is actually kind of awesome.

Asobi Seksu

Continue reading “My Favorite Bands of 2009”

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Some Mad Men News

Set your DVRs! Jon Hamm and January Jones will be on The Oprah Winfrey Show this Monday, September 21st. I don’t know exactly what they’ll be talking about, but the theme of the show is “Oprah Goes Back in Time: The 60s”, so expect a lot of nostalgia about the Cilvil Rights Movement.

Mad Men on Oprah

Also, media buyers and planners have predicted that Mad Men will not only win the Emmy for Best Drama, but that Jon Hamm and Elizabeth Moss will win Emmys for Best Actor and Best Actress, too. They also have predicted that 30 Rock will win for Best Comedy, and that Tina Fey and Alec Baldwin will win for Best Actress and Actor in a comedy series as well.

Fingers crossed!

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Hail Emperor Norton!

150 years ago today, Joshua Abraham Norton – one of history’s greatest oddballs – declared himself “Emperor of the United States”. He would also later also declare himself “Protector of Mexico”.

Born in London around 1819, Norton spent most of his childhood in South Africa. In 1849 he moved to San Francisco, where he inherited $40,000 from his father’s estate (just over $1 million in 2008 dollars). Norton turned the $40,000 into $250,000 ($6.4 million) by way of real estate investments… but then disaster struck.

Facing a severe famine, China banned all exports of rice, which caused the price of rice to jump from 4¢ a pound to 36¢ a pound in San Francisco. Smelling a fortune, Norton found out that a ship named Glyde, traveling from Peru, had 200,000 pounds of rice on board. He bought her cargo, sight unseen, for $25,000. Unfortunately, shortly thereafter several other ships from Peru also loaded with rice arrived in San Francisco, causing the “rice bubble” to collapse. Norton spent years fighting against his cargo contract in the courts, and finally lost when the Supreme Court of California ruled against him. Financially ruined, Norton declared bankruptcy in 1858 and left San Francisco.

No one knows for sure exactly where Norton was for the next year, but on September 17, 1859, Norton returned to the city and wrote a letter which was sent to all the leading newspapers in the city:

At the peremptory request and desire of a large majority of the citizens of these United States, I, Joshua Norton, formerly of Algoa Bay, Cape of Good Hope, and now for the last 9 years and 10 months past of S. F., Cal., declare and proclaim myself Emperor of these U. S.; and in virtue of the authority thereby in me vested, do hereby order and direct the representatives of the different States of the Union to assemble in Musical Hall, of this city, on the 1st day of Feb. next, then and there to make such alterations in the existing laws of the Union as may ameliorate the evils under which the country is laboring, and thereby cause confidence to exist, both at home and abroad, in our stability and integrity.

NORTON I, Emperor of the United States

The editor of the San Francisco Bulletin was amused by the letter, and printed it in his paper… and thus, a local legend was born. The citizens of San Francisco indulged him, and “Emperor Norton” spent his days roaming around the streets of his “kingdom” (or, as Norton would say, “inspecting the public works”) in an elaborate uniform given to him by Army officers at the Presidio.

Continue reading “Hail Emperor Norton!”

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What a load!

Environmental protesters dumped a load of manure in Jeremy Clarkson’s driveway… but how was anyone able to notice?

Clarkson, who hosts the show Top Gear in which he and others test out a variety of cars, is known for sticking his foot in his mouth almost as often as Prince Philip. Since Clarkson rarely has anything nice to say about Americans, Germans, Asians, small animals, trees, fat people, non-whites, the poor, truck drivers,  or almost anything else (cite), it would be hard for me to tell when the bullshit stops and where Clarkson begins.

Also, Candus Jane Zanghi is a bitch. Not quite as bitchy as Cintra Wilson, but a bitch all the same.

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Science Roundup

This is a picture of “earthquake lights”:

earthquake_lights

As early as 373 BC, people have claimed to see similar aurora-like lights in the sky during (and sometimes before) earthquakes. Scientists are at a loss for what those lights might be. Some think that they’re electrically charged gasses released into the atmosphere by fissures in the earth’s crust. Others think that stress on the tectonic plates from the earthquake somehow messes with the earth’s magnetic field and causes the lights. Since the lights are often seen in China, some geologists guess that the lights might be caused by sparks from compressed quartz in the ground. At the end of the day, no one really knows, so your guess is almost as good as someone with a PhD from MIT… which is kind of cool.

And what the hell is this:

New Montauk Monster

According to this article in the Daily Mail, it’s a photograph of some as yet unidentified creature snapped by teenagers in Panama. The creature is drawing comparisons with the Montauk Monster, an unidentified creature found on Long Island, New York in July 2008. However, there were several immediate candidates for what the Montauk Monster might have been: a raccoon, an unusually large opossum, a dog, or perhaps a rodent (whatever it was, it has spent a considerable amount of time in the water, which altered its appearance and made identification difficult). No such guessing is possible for this strange creature, although many are calling it an outright prank or a “lost film prop” (the teenagers claimed to beat it to death with sticks, so if that’s true, then “film prop” is right out).

And finally, there are new pictures from Hubble and the first pictures from the Planck telescope to feast your eyes on.

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Ashes to Ashes News

Filming has started for the final season of Ashes to Ashes, and Cathode Ray Tube has this nice post about it, including some pics of the cast… which includes a few pictures of Keeley Hawes’ new circa 1983 haircut:

(click to enlarge)
(click to enlarge)

It’s a good read; if you’re an Ashes fan, you should really check it out. In case you’re concerned, it’s pretty much spoiler-free, although Philip Glenister does talk about John Simm’s (lack of) a role in Ashes.

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Mad Men: “The Fog”

This episode begins with Don and Betty having a conference with Sally’s teacher. Apparently, she’s been acting up and causing trouble since Gene died. Sally’s teacher, Miss Farrell, knows that Betty is pregnant but also knows that she has a little brother… so she asks if anything else has changed in the home. Betty says that her father died “last week.. the week before, two weeks now”. Miss Farrell apologizes for prying, the asks why they didn’t send a note along with Sally. She also notes that Sally didn’t miss any school from it, to which Betty says that they “didn’t want to put her through that” and Don says that “children don’t belong in graveyards”. Miss Farrell also says that this explains why Sally has been asking so many questions about the death of Medgar Evers. Betty excuses herself to go to the ladies’ room, while Miss Farrell talks to Don about “the pain of losing someone at that age”.

mad_men_s03_e_04_01

Meanwhile, back at Sterling Cooper, Lane heads a meeting where he takes everyone to task for wasting money on expense reports and office supplies. Don, having been at the teacher conference, walks in late. Lane complains about the discrepancy between Don and Sal’s expense reports from the Baltimore trip ($70 vs. $82), to which an irritated Don notes that he signed all of Sal’s receipts. Lane sighs and then complains that the amount of pens, pencils, pads, paper and postage “suit a company four times our size”. Don, having heard enough, gets up and leaves.

Continue reading “Mad Men: “The Fog””

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“A National Embarrassment”

The QC Sports Blog has come down hard on John Fox and the Carolina Panthers’ management team for starting Jake “11 Interceptions” Delhomme next week:

It’s official; John Fox named Jake Delhomme the starter next week at Atlanta. This is unbelievable. Could you imagine if the Panthers were coached by Bill Parcells or Bill Cowher? Delhomme wouldn’t just be benched; he would be cut. Instead, he was given a vote of confidence to remain the starter of the John Fox-led Panthers.

We are rapidly joining the Bengals and Raiders as the laughingstocks of the league.

I’ve followed that blog since last season, and I would normally consider the author to be a pretty level-headed guy. But if he’s this pissed about it, I wonder what the really hardcore Panthers fans are thinking!

via A National Embarrassment « QC Sports Blog.