The Great Saltair
Current mood: content

So I haven't updated anyone in a really long time and it's a situation I mean to rectify.  For the past month or so I've been on the road with Emerson Hart and the fantastic band supporting his new record all over the country.  I'm currently writing to you from a truly bizarre club on the very edge of the Salt Lake called the Great Saltair. Its very existence is mystifying.  Imagine a mini Taj Mahal on the banks of a creepy lake in the middle of the desert.  It's amazing that there's people or electricity here, not to mention the wi-fi providing me the means to write this to you all now.

But, at any rate, life out here is good.  We just spent a lovely day off in Salt Lake City where I did a little shopping and got the best sleep I've had in a month.  It took me almost 30 seconds after I woke up to remember where I was and why.  I love that feeling so much that it's a wonder I don't do drugs.

Two nights ago in Denver was the last night of the tour with both Live and Collective Soul.  Live have gone home for the rest of the year but CS and EH are pressing on.  The Live guys were oddly mysterious, but nice.  They floated in to the venue about 30 minutes before they played and disappeared almost immediately after.  All in all, though, they were good to us and we appreciate them having us out.  We've abducted their guitar tech, Kory to come help us with the rest of the run.  It's good to have some new blood out with us.  We're all getting along well, but it never hurts to have someone new to chime in and break up the routine.

Though I love what we're doing, I'm looking forward to being home in Nashville soon.  We'll get a few days off from the tour between California and Texas.  I can't wait to see friends and swap stories.

Love you all,
-devo

3:47 PM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

Weekend movies.

There are many things in my life that bring me joy, but I truly live for the awful movies that come on every weekend.  Between Superstation and the CW and Fox, I was treated (just today) to Battlefield Earth, a ridiculously disjointed Stephen King adaptation of The Dark Half, and the delightful Belushi/Shakur tour de force of Gang Related.  What a wonderful day it's been.  I don't know what I did to get so lucky, but I'm sure going to try and keep it up.

I hope everyone's having a good evening tonight.  The CW is currently giving me Memento which I suppose I'll watch, even though it's an excellent movie and I try to stick to pure crap on the weekend.  Carrie-Anne Moss is hot, though, so I'm in.

Have fun out there. You know where I'll be,
-d

6:11 PM - 3 Comments - 4 Kudos - Add Comment

Monseigneur Ferguson

Hey.  If anyone missed my lil TV debut last week, I thought I'd point out where you can see it.  If you check the recent blogs at www.myspace.com/emersonhart then you'll find it posted there.  I think it went pretty well and hopefully you feel the same!

As for me, I'm just enjoying getting the ball rolling on Emerson's tour.  We're off to play with Switchfoot again this friday and then next month we start the Live/Collective Soul tour.  Come see us in your town!

Love,
-devo

8:58 AM - 3 Comments - 4 Kudos - Add Comment

Off tour now.
Current mood: cheerful

So, I figured I'd update anyone who wished to know.  As of this past Monday, I'm no longer on tour with Josh Gracin.

It has been a great experience traveling the country for six months, making some music with friends, and paying my bills in the best way possible.  I did, however, decide that his brand of pop country is really not where my heart lies.  With that in mind, I turned in my notice and set to helping the musical director find and train a suitable replacement.  Mr. Michael Meadows of Charlottesville, VA will be taking over for me when the Gracin machine starts back up in the states in mid-July.

As stated in my last blog, Emerson Hart's machine is just now getting going and that will hopefully be my next full-time occupation.  Keep requesting that song and keep your fingers crossed for us!  It just climbed to #27 up from #29 on its 5th week on the Hot AC Charts.

At any rate, I'm now back in Nashville for a while.  I'm unemployed, so give me a call if'n you want to hang out.  Oh, and if you know anybody that needs a musician for hire, send that along too!

Love to you all,
-devo

8:34 AM - 4 Comments - 6 Kudos - Add Comment

If You're Gonna Leave.
Current mood: happy

Dearest all,

I just want to let everyone know that Emerson Hart's first single "If You're Gonna Leave" is finally hitting radio!  For those of you that don't know already, working with Emerson has been a major focus in my life for the past few years and I'm incredibly excited that the beautiful music we've created is finally getting out to the people. 

The song debuted at #37 on the Hot AC charts and has risen to #34 in two weeks.  I urge you all to check out his myspace page and see what you think of our work.  If you dig it, please tell friends and call radio stations as much as you see fit.  I know that I would appreciate it and so would the very hard-working Mr. Hart.

Hopefully the record will generate enough response for us to line up tour dates soon.  If so, I'll see you out there!
-devo

Currently listening : Cigarettes & Gasoline By Emerson Hart Release date: 17 July, 2007

4:01 PM - 5 Comments - 6 Kudos - Add Comment

Busy little bee.
Current mood: tired

Goodness gracious.  It feels like forever since I got any sleep.

I thought an update was due for anyone who wondered if I'm still alive.  The answer is a faint 'yes'.  Anyone who has paid attention to my tour dates knows that I'm currently on the road with Josh Gracin.  Seeing as how I don't know anyone who actually listens to country music, many of you have asked who the hell that is.  Well- he was in the Marines, went on American Idol season 2, finished 4th, signed a deal with Lyric Street Records (Rascal Flatt's label, if that tells you anything...), put out a record, had a bunch of singles go way up the charts, and now is trying to get the industry to let him put out a second record.  That sums it up pretty good.  Anyhoo, we're going all over god's green acres playing modern country rock.  I'm playing electric/acoustic guitar, mandolin, and banjo.  Oh, and just for the record, I may as well be playing on the moon.  Yes- country music, clubs, fans, promoters, etc. really are that weird.  And let me add that in the year two thousand and seven (when we thought we'd all have flying cars already), there's still hundreds of thousands of people that think vegetarians eat chicken and that it's wise to mix religion and politics.

That aside, it's been good having steady work and a good paycheck.  I get little time at home and I'm learning to try to pack in visits with my friends and cherish the occasional local gig playing beautiful and meaningful music for beautiful and meaningful people.  On that note, I'm playing three (count 'em- three) shows in Nashville this week for some good friends.  Come out and say hello if you'd like.  You don't know how much your faces will mean to a guy that's been country-rocking the planet Zarquon for 4 months.

Love to you all, I have to go learn songs.
-devo

4:33 PM - 5 Comments - 4 Kudos - Add Comment

Pascal's Wager...
Current mood: contemplative

While on a late night session of pondering religion, I found a really interesting article on Pascal's Wager.  I hope you enjoy it.

____________

Pascal's Wager is well-known to many atheists. On the internet, it is probably the most common argument heard from Christians, and the regulars of newsgroups such as alt.atheism feel cheated if a week goes by without someone bringing it up (this rarely happens), only to be shot down in flames (this always happens). It is also one of the most common arguments I receive in my email box, so this article was written specifically to deal with it.

Pascal's Wager is quite simple, and superficially appears to be a strong and compelling argument for theism. However, a little close scrutiny soon reveals the flawed logic and reasoning behind it, which actually makes it one of the weakest arguments a theist could come up with.

The Wager

Alternatively :

The worst case for the theist is no afterlife, the worst case for the atheist is an eternity in Hell. You can see why this appears to be a potentially convincing argument - it is sensible to choose the least-worst case.

The flaws

The most obvious problems with Pascal's Wager are:

• How do you know which God to believe in? There are plenty to choose from, and if you pick the wrong one, you could be in big trouble (e.g. what if you choose Jesus, but get to heaven only to come face-to-trunk with Ganesh?). This is known as the "Avoiding the wrong Hell problem". If a dozen people of different religions came to you with Pascal's Wager, how could you possibly choose between them? After all, many religions are quite specific that they are the One True Religion, and not any others. Jesus Christ said "I am the way, the truth and the light. None shall come to the Father except through me." [emphasis added] and no doubt most other religions make similar claims. If a Christian considers the Wager as strong support for his faith, surely he must accept that it is equally valid for all other religions when presented to himself?
• God is not stupid. Won't He know that you're just trying to get a free ride into Heaven? How can you sincerely believe in a God simply out of convenience?
• If there is no God, you have still lost something. You have wasted a good portion of your life performing the various devotional rituals, attending Churches, praying, reading scripture and discussing your deity with His other followers. Not to mention giving your hard-earned money to the church, wasting your intelligence on theological endeavours and boring the hell out of people who really don't want to hear your Good News.
• Can you get away with just sort of generally believing in a Supreme Being, without specifically believing in one particular Deity? Probably not - God will still know what you're up to. Also, many Gods are quite particular about how they should be worshipped. Many born-again Christians will tell you that the only way to Heaven is through accepting Jesus Christ as your personal saviour - nothing more and nothing less. General-Deity-Belief and being nice simply won't do. Many people believe that all the different religions are merely alternative routes to the same destination. Nice and tolerant (if a little warm'n'fuzzy) though this may be, there is no valid reason to accept this stance over the fire-and-brimstone fundamentalist position : if the fundies are right, then the un-Saved liberal theists are in just as much trouble as the nonbelievers.
• Few, if any, atheists disbelieve in deities out of choice. It's not as if we know the god is really there, but somehow refuse to believe in it (for example, see if you can choose to truly believe that Australia does not exist). Most atheists disbelieve simply because they know of no compelling evidence to suggest that any sort of god exists. If you want an atheist to believe, show her some good evidence, don't just say it's in her best interests to believe even if there is no god. A person cannot choose to sincerely believe in something, just because it is pragmatic to do so. Sure, you could say all the right prayers and attend church regularly, but that is not the same thing as actually believing, and any God worth his salt would obviously see straight through that.
• It is quite insulting. It amounts to a thinly veiled threat, little better than saying "Believe in my God or He'll send you to Hell" (in fact, this is often the form it is presented in). Also, the theist making this threat assumes that the atheist believes there is a Hell or a God to send her there in the first place. If you don't believe in Hell anyway, it's not a scary thing to be threatened with - a bit like saying "If you don't start believing in unicorns, one will trample you to death while you're sleeping." Who would be worried by that?
• It is often self-refuting, depending on the person's description of God. If you believe that God will forgive anyone for anything, or judge people purely on how they lived their life and not what they believed, or that everyone gets to Heaven regardless (unless maybe they were genocidal cannibal serial killers), then the Wager is meaningless. You might as well say "Believe in God, or you'll... erm... go to Heaven anyway." In such a case, it doesn't make a scrap of difference whether the person believes or not.

Pascal's Wager is hopelessly flawed. It sounds good at first, but poke it with the spike of reason and it quickly deflates, letting out all the hot air.

An alternative - The Atheist's Wager

(And if God is not benevolent, he's gonna git ya whatever you do!)
This can be shown as:

12:11 AM - 4 Comments - 5 Kudos - Add Comment

New Year's Cleaning.
Current mood: hopeful

I've been around the apartment organizing and getting things ready for a year of straight ass-kicking.  I just got a printer so expect to see all sorts of things printed in '07.  Oh yeah.  That's right.

I might even move some furniture around if I'm feeling saucy.

Also- I'm gonna go through the ol' friends list here on the space.  Please write me a note if I delete you and you're not happy about it.  It's just cause we haven't talked in forever and I can't find anybody on the damned list anymore.  If I didn't love you then you wouldn't have been added in the first place.  Don't get yer panties in a bunch... 

Love,
-devo

2:18 PM - 5 Comments - 4 Kudos - Add Comment

A Visit From St. Sickolas.
Current mood: lethargic

'Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house
Only Devo was stirring, and maybe a mouse.
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
But devo was crawling to the bathroom downstairs.

His affliction had yanked him right out of his bed,
And acute pain stretched from his stomach to head.
He was still in his pj's, his socks and his cap,
As he had settled his brain for a long winter's nap.

When down in his bowels there arose such a clatter,
He sprang from his bed to see what was the matter.
Away to the toilet he flew like a blaze,
And this was the start of his painful malaise.

Okay.  That's just about enough of that and I'm sure you get the idea.  I haven't caught a wicked bug like that one in a very long time.  I hope everyone else's christmas was a little more enjoyable than mine!  I'm just starting to recover here this afternoon so I'm sorry if I missed anyone this visit...

Merry christmas to all and to all a good night!
-d

1:16 PM - 5 Comments - 4 Kudos - Add Comment

health insurance
Current mood: crushed

I'm sitting at home and watching the news tonight.  For those of you don't know, there was a horrible murder at a convenience store a few days ago.  This is certainly awful and worth mentioning on its own.  However I was drawn to the last part of the story.  A local man who was laying on his back by the counter was shot in the back by one of the robbers for no reason at all.  Again, this is horrible.  Now we find out that the shooter was a 16 year old girl and it's hard to believe that this could get worse. 

The last part of the story was that a trust fund was being established for the man because, though he had health insurance, it won't cover all of his medical bills.

Are you f***ing kidding me?  An innocent working man stops by the convenience store, follows the instructions of the robbers, gets shot in the back, pulls it together to call 911 with a bullet in him, and the insurance company that HE PAYS MONTHLY won't cover all his medical bills?  This insanity has to end.  There is a special place in hell for the bastards that are fraudulently abusing the system, the losers that are clogging up ERs trying to get prescription drugs, and the rich a**hole CEOs that are stepping into their Porsche's as all this is happening. 

My thoughts are with the family of this victim.  The bastards causing you this heartache will pay in this life or the next.  I'm gonna go cry now.  Peace.
-d 

8:06 PM - 1 Comments - 4 Kudos - Add Comment