We now pause

Off with the family for a long anticipated Spring break vacation. I leave the internet in your capable hands until I return.

The Exact Same Thing Happened To Me

Tom Waits on his cherished albums of all time

"14 Passion for Opera Aria (EMI Classics) 1994

I heard 'Nessun Dorma' in the kitchen at Coppola's with Raul Julia one night, and it changed my life, that particular Aria. I had never heard it. He asked me if I had ever heard it, and I said no, and he was like, as if I said I've never had spaghetti and meatballs - 'Oh My God, Oh My God!' - and he grabbed me and he brought me into the jukebox (there was a jukebox in the kitchen) and he put that on and he just kind of left me there. It was like giving a cigar to a five-year old. I turned blue, and I cried."

Upon reading this I instantly reached for my iPod and found Jose Carreras singing this. It is utter bliss.

I don't know - kinda looks like a Pokeman to me

Pet store owner sees Satan's image on turtle's shell

I find that the innate pattern recognition ability that humans possess and works wonders most of the time, may also be one of the root factors in the development of religions.

As I recently wrote Hedwig:

"Here's me going out on a limb: religion might well be a human adaptation "artifact" from our pattern recognition abilities.

A while back we painted our guest restroom with a swirling, multi-color "faux" finish (shades of red, mainly). There at the throne, I see faces. Now I painted the walls myself. I know there are no faces there. And I don't see the same face twice. We see objects we recognize in clouds, in the pile of leaves behind the house, in a stray grill cheese sandwich. All artifacts of this remarkable brain being on alert. And it goes on from there. I think the roots of the supernatural are all there (along with some other adaptations that are useful to us in other ways - and this damn monkey curiosity).

I imagine that if some day we were to meet another intelligent race and some how found a way to communicate (which may be very, very difficult if not outright impossible), and we mentioned our many religious beliefs, they'd reply "what the fuck are you talking about?""