Twitterpated

• 06:29 I'm not sure I understand Follow Friday. Are we supposed to follow the cop from Dragnet, or the king from Mr. Rogers? #
• 06:54 @JaredofMo Well, "pioneer" doesn't necessarily mean you'll be successful, does it? #
• 18:39 Am I the only one who thinks the term "born again" is a little overly dramatic? #
• 18:39 Of the Talking Heads albums I have, "Fear of Music" might well be my favorite. #
• 20:25 @TheRealTavie I usually don't add anyone I don't already know, although I've occasionally made an exception when feeling generous. #
• 20:27 @eehouls I'm no hipster, but I'm not such a fan of optimism myself. #
• 20:28 @eehouls Yeah, that was a real Lucky Strike for you! <rimshot> #
• 20:33 Maybe there should be an album of minimalist covers of Blondie songs. It would be called "Heart of Philip Glass." #
• 20:34 @samuraifrog Surprisingly, the truth is that Jesus ONLY loves gays. And prostitutes, of course. #
• 20:35 @zoevermillion If you eat Italian food in Germany, what do you have in Italy? #
• 21:46 @DVDBoxSet Probably has something to do with your living in the nightgown of the sullen moon. #
• 21:57 I hear that people want Obama to appoint a Hispanic female to the Supreme Court. How about Maria from Sesame Street? #
• 22:49 What would Jesus NOT do? tinyurl.com/db9j2n #

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When You Wish Upon a Wasp Star

Well, I might as well finish up my song-by-song reviews of XTC albums, since I only have one more to go anyway. And that one is, of course, Apple Venus Volume 2, better known as Wasp Star. While the first Apple Venus was full of light, pastoral music, its counterpart was planned as a rock album. It's not exactly a return to the sound of White Music or Black Sea, though, but more of a soft-rock kind of thing. I hesitate to use that term, because radio stations tend to use "soft rock" as a synonym for "what you hear in the waiting room at the dentist's office," and this album definitely has more energy to it than that. I'm just trying to say that it's electric rock, but not super-noisy or anything.

( There might be flying pigs. )

And that's it for XTC albums. I might decide to do these reviews for another band at some point, but as of right now, I'm rather bored of it.

Osiris, Can You See?

This is an appropriate time of year to discuss myths of the death and rebirth of deities. This idea is common to belief systems throughout the world, but I can think of only one that involves a detached penis being eaten by a fish. I refer, of course, to the story of Osiris.

Osiris was one of the most important Egyptian gods, and was regarded as the first Pharaoh of the land. His brother Set was jealous of his position, and killed Osiris by sealing him in a box, which he threw in the Nile. Set is a rather interesting character himself, as he seems to be one of the earliest gods who wasn't just a trickster or a jerk, but rather purely evil. This wasn't always the case, however. He was originally the god of the desert and of chaos, but was eventually vilified, and came to be essentially the Satan of the Egyptian pantheon. Anyway, getting back to Osiris, his wife Isis retrieved him from the box, and sought the help of Thoth in bringing him back to life. Before the ritual could be completed, Set stole his brother's body and cut it into pieces, which he scattered throughout the country. Isis managed to find all of them except for his penis, as it had become literal fish food, and had him revived. Still, he was not allowed to stay in the world of the living, and became the ruler of the underworld instead. Pharaohs, and eventually common Egyptians as well, were said to be able to become Osiris at death, essentially being able to gain new life and avoid harsh judgment in the next world by accepting him as their savior, in much the same way as people today seek salvation by means of another resurrected god. There's truly nothing new under the great solar disc of Amon-Ra, is there?