Danny ChaiI kind of feel sometimes on my page I need to let people know about things they might not know. I’m an information sponge, and I remember random information for no practical reason.
Anyway, you should know about this group called P.O.D. Their album is climbing up the Billboard charts; they’re growing in popularity, and they’re outspoken Christians. Their album, in fact, is marketed in both mainstream and Christian stores. Anyway, they’re the latest Christian group to get big in the mainstream, and thought you might want to know.
A big influence in alternative Christian music died last week. His name is Gene Eugene, and the vast majority of you have never heard of him, and you’ve probably never heard his work, but he did a lot, not just as an artist, but especially as a producer, sound engineer, and mixer. He was very very influential. Anyway, rec.music.christian is at best tedious and at worst, totally depressing, but since he died, the eulogies have been remarkably moving.
I once set up a music link from jack.html with the intention of turning everyone on to good music, but I never got around to it. I should probably kill the link. But I still want to turn people on to good music. Here are 3 albums everyone should buy that no one has.
Whiteheart – Freedom. This is quite simply the best straightahead rock album produced by a Christian in the last 10 years. It’s incredible. The group splintered after this, and several of them became noted studio musicians. In particular, Chris McHugh, the drummer, Gordon Kennedy, the lead guitar, and Tommy Sims, the bassist. If you look in the liner notes of a lot of CCM albums, their names can be found a lot. Chris McHugh played on Liturgy, Legacy…. Gordon Kennedy and Tommy Sims won a Grammy for writing (with Wayne Kirkpatrick) Change The World, that Eric Clapton song. The point is, they’re immensely talented, and their talent shines on this album.
Rachel Rachel – You Oughta Know By Now. It’s an all girl rock band, a la Bangles, but slightly harder. This album is just good pop-rock. I could listen to it over and over again. And it contains one of my favorite songs of all time, You’ll Never Know. Worth buying, if you can find it.
Streams. This one I just got, and it’s phenomenal. It’s a variety of artists. The production on this album is amazing. In particular, it has the most intricate, incredible vocal arrangements I have ever heard. If I could write music, I would want to write music like this. I first got it last Friday and I’ve listened to it at least 15 times. Gosh, there are so many good songs on this album, I can’t recommend it enough. It even includes a duet between Delirious? and Amy Grant. I don’t care what the song is like, that pairing is worth the price of admission.
This came up because I went to L.A. last week and driving up and down I was listening to these CDs. I could listen to these repeatedly. I love it. Anyway, just wanted to let you know these CDs exist an that you should buy them immediately. At least buy Streams and Freedom.
I was reading Newsweek, and it was talking about this dot.com that went bankrupt. It’s a big deal because it was the first e-commerce company to go bankrupt. But it’s starting a trend. A lot of companies are in trouble, including peapod, pets.com, cdnow.com, and a host of others. The article was basically about how a lot of dot.coms are in trouble, and the implications of this on other companies wanting to make IPOs.
The point is, the boom is over, and sorry if you missed out on it. But you’re not going to get rich automatically by going to a startup. Actually, if you had gone to Cisco, you’d be rich. What was it, their stock price has increased by a factor of a thousand, or is it two thousand, in the past 5 years. Thousands of employees there are millionaires. So you gotta pick a winner, and that may or may not be a startup.
At any rate, I’m glad it’s getting sane again so we all go back to choosing jobs for the right reasons – we like the work.
This next part is gross. But for the last 3 days, I’ve had a zit in my nostril. I’m not talking about right by the opening; it’s a good half inch deep. At first I was worried like a had a tumor or something, but eventually it popped, so I was happy, although disgusted. I cannot describe how difficult it is to pop a zit in your nose. And then deal with the results. Anyway, I was just astounded, because I didn’t know you could get zits there. I’ve gotten zits in other weird places also, like where your earlobe attaches to behind your cheek.
I also decided to Q-tip my left ear today. Anyway, I didn’t get anything out, but I must have loosened up a huge chunk, because the rest of the day, these gigantic pieces of earwax would fall out of my ear. I mean, seriously big chunks, and lots of them. It was astounding. The first few chunks were a yellow color, and the color of the falling chunks gradually changed to a brownish yellow. I guess they had been there a long time. At any rate, it was just amazing. Seriously, I just produce copious amounts of earwax. It’s bizarre.