The Line Up
R.E.M. / The Cure / The Flaming Lips U.F.O. Show / Death Cab For Cutie / Modest Mouse / M.I.A. / Flight Of The Conchords / Rodrigo Y Gabriela / Michael Franti & Spearhead / The Breeders / Built To Spill / The Hives / Tegan & Sara / Ghostland Observatory / Ozomatli / The New Pornographers / Blue Scholars / The National / The Kooks / Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks / Cold War Kids / Beirut / Rogue Wave / Okkervil River / Fleet Foxes / Kinski / Mates of State / Sera Cahoone / Crudo (featuring Mike Patton & Dan The Automator) / Battles / Destroyer / Dyme Def / The Blakes / Pela / Jamie Lidell / The Cops / Dengue Fever / Siberian / Say Hi / White Rabbits / David Bazan / The Little Ones / "Awesome" / Dead Confederate / The Heavenly States / 65daysofstatic / Grand Archives / Vince Mira with the Roy Kay Trio / Joshua Morrison / Throw Me The Statue / J. Tillman / The Shaky Hands / Thao Nguyen with the Get Down Stay Down / Matt Costa / The Cave Singers

All of that, plus a week of climbing before hand at Skaha. everything is falling into place.

how about PROJECT BLEEDING EARS PARTY!!!?

Wow, I wish I had noticed the multiple posts I made complaining about someone else's poor programming. Now I feel like an idiot.

I did find the existence of a "Department of Religious Affairs" interesting (albeit no more Orwellian than the Ministry of Fitness or the Ministry of Learning.) Not quite sure if, globally, such a government agency is the exception and not the rule, though.

Seems pretty brazen to try to redefine a major religion. (Not that that's stopped powerful people before, though.)

(Also, well done, Jess.)

I find it interesting that Jess' post indicates that it is TURKEY conducting this re-write:

"Turkey is preparing to publish a document that represents a revolutionary reinterpretation of Islam - and a controversial and radical modernisation of the religion.

The country's powerful Department of Religious Affairs has commissioned a team of theologians at Ankara University to carry out a fundamental revision of the Hadith, the second most sacred text in Islam after the Koran. "

...

"According to Fadi Hakura, an expert on Turkey from Chatham House in London, Turkey is doing nothing less than recreating Islam - changing it from a religion whose rules must be obeyed, to one designed to serve the needs of people in a modern secular democracy.

He says that to achieve it, the state is fashioning a new Islam.

"This is kind of akin to the Christian Reformation," he says.

"Not exactly the same, but if you think, it's changing the theological foundations of [the] religion. "

Fadi Hakura believes that until now secularist Turkey has been intent on creating a new politics for Islam.

Now, he says, "they are trying to fashion a new Islam." "

this is a new twist (for me) on the whole state-religion thing...

If you want to make something sound cool don't use (blank) party. Instead use Operation or Project. For example Operation: Echo, Project: Euphoria, Operation: Bleeding ears, Project: Cool vibe, and so and so forth.

Hey, I made a link that works!

Turkey in radical revision of Islamic texts

I am so incredibly jealous of you, Jesse...

some of my friends went to Sasquatch last year and said it was AWESOME.
so, so, SO jealous...
alas, one needs money to do fun things like that.



and yes, count me in on the listening party too... whatever name it's got.

Hells yeah for the listening party! though that sounds boring, we need a better name. hmmm. I'll get back to you on that one.

I'm goin to sasquatch baby!!!! All I've gotta do now is buy tickets, get the time off work. figure out how I'm getting to the gorge and how I'm gonna pay for it. but thats all minor details!

While I'm on a posting spree, it seems, might as well mention this: Stelmach wants full report on oilsands moratorium:

The Alberta Conservatives will not decide for months on a request . . . to halt development leases in three huge and environmentally sensitive swaths of the oilsands region, Conservative Leader Ed Stelmach said today.

The request threatens to pit Stelmach's commitment to environmental protection against his campaign mantra of not "touching the brake" on energy development, although he repeatedly dodged that question as the final week of campaigning towards next Monday's election began.

...

"Governments do not control the economy," Stelmach said. "The last time the economy was controlled by a government was back in the 1980s and it was the federal Trudeau Liberals... we're not going back to those dark days.

Industry giants including Petro-Canada, Imperial Oil, Husky Energy and Suncor Energy support the request for protected conservation areas in a January letter to the Alberta government by the Cumulative Environmental Management Association. The letter asks that the government not sell oilsands leases in the three areas until at least 2011.

The first sentence of the second last paragraph of a CBC report about a medical study, quoting the author:

"The upshot of this research is that there isn't a one-size-fits-all approach," said Baldwin.

Doctor knows best: take-charge patients have poorer outcomes
Patients who choose to be highly involved in their medical treatment actually fare less well with chronic health problems than patients who defer to their doctors, finds a new study.