Trips to Lourdes to cut time spent in purgatory

 

Is this a joke article, like from The Onion or something like that? Does this kind of stuff still go on today?

Read full story from telegraph.co.uk

Excerpt:

Pope Benedict XVI is offering relief from purgatory to Roman Catholics who travel to Lourdes over the next year, the Vatican said yesterday.

Pilgrims to the shrine in south-west France will receive “plenary indulgences” from the Pontiff, which the Church says reduce the time spent being “washed” of sin after death. The indulgences will be available from this weekend until Dec 8, 2008.

The Church teaches that people who do not go directly to heaven must spend time in purgatory, where they can be purified of residual sin.

It is the latest initiative to get more pilgrims to the shrine, famous for the reported healing properties of its water. In August the Vatican opened an airline service offering pilgrims direct flights from Rome to Lourdes.

Germany Moves to Ban Scientology

 

Hmmm….and not one quote from Tom Cruise in the article. Strange.

Read the full article on CNN.com

EXCERPT:

BERLIN, Germany – Germany’s top security officials said Friday they consider the goals of the Church of Scientology to be in conflict with the principles of the nation’s constitution and will seek to ban the organization.

The ministers, as well as federal Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, “consider Scientology to be an organization that is not compatible with the constitution,” said Berlin Interior Minister Ehrhart Koerting, who presided over the officials’ two-day conference.

“From a number of sources, some of them not available to the public, it has been determined that (the organization) seeks to limit or rescind basic and human rights, such as the right to develop one’s personality and the right to be treated equally,” the report said.

Facebook CEO Apologizes for Advertising Bungle

 

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg apologized to site members Wednesday for bungling a new advertising system. Will it silence critics?

CEO’s mess up sometimes. It’s refreshing when they readily admit the mistake, fix it and move on. Even the creator of WordPress has had some serious business bungles but was quickly forgiven after details being leaked to the media.

I have personal pages on MySpace.com and FaceBook.com – I prefer Facebook out of the two. Maybe because most of my contacts on Facebook are people I went to school with or worked with. Where MySpace.com is riddled with people marketing their products and services. Ok, I admit I also get a kick on Facebook with raising my own dragon, and in having my vampire bite all my friends to make them into minions.

Full Article from Fortune Magazine

Excerpt:

(Fortune) — “The press rarely grants an autumn reprise for those it loved in the spring,” once wrote the great New York Times columnist Russell Baker. How true in the case of Internet-darling-turned-reviled-evildoer Facebook.

Facebook, the popular social networking site, has ridden the hype curve up and down in recent months, reaching a low Tuesday over claims that a month-old advertising system violates members’ privacy. CEO Mark Zuckerberg took a big step Wednesday toward silencing naysayers – one of whom was my own colleague Josh Quittner – when he issued a contrite apology and made a key change to the new advertising feature, dubbed Beacon.

“We’ve made a lot of mistakes building this feature,” acknowledged Zuckerberg, “but we’ve made even more with how we’ve handled them. We simply did a bad job with this release, and I apologize for it.”

Freddy Fender: I Don’t Want To Be Lonely CD

Artist: Freddy Fender
Album Title: I Don’t Want To Be Lonely

Produced by Freddy Fender
Engineer: Conrad Askland
Tracking by Conrad Askland, Road Records, Victorville, CA
Overdubs and Mastering by Brian Winfrey, Deep South Studios
Mixed by Deep South Studios, Corpus Christi, TX

MUSICIANS:
Drums: Rhys Clark
Bass: Chris Jurado
Keyboards: Augie Meyers and Conrad Askland
Guitar and Pedal Steel: Mark Tate
Electric Lead Guitar: Philip Houston
Electric Guitar and Vocals: Freddy Fender

Photography: David Peralta, San Jose, CA
Recorded at: Road Studios, Victorville, CA
Graphic Design: Robert B. Lovato
Sound Recorders, Austin, TX

Manufactured by: Sound Recorders, Austin, TX

“I Don’t Want To Be Lonely”
Words and Music by Freddy Fender (Baldemar Huerta)

I don’t want to be lonely, lonely for your love
For I, just love you only and baby you’re the one I’m thinkin’ of
I know, you love another and baby I know you don’t want my love
But I, I love you only and baby you’re the one I’m thinkin’ of
I don’t want to be forsaken, just dreaming babe, ’bout your love
I don’t want to be mistaken, but I think babe you’re the one I’m thinkin’ of
Cause I, I’ll be the lonely one. Baby, you’re the one I’m thinkin’ of.

I know you love another and I know you don’t want me anymore
But I, could never love no one else and I will be your love forever more
But I don’t want to be lonely, lonely for your love
Cause I, I’ll be the lonely one and baby you’re the one I’m thinkin’ of.
And baby you’re the on I’m thinkin’ of

Dae Jun – McDonald’s Superstar

After conducting a show I stopped by McDonald’s and got my meal wrapped in the coolest Mickey D bag. One side featured Mr. Dae Jun of South Korea – a university student, orchestra cellist and “McDonald’s crew and Global Casting Star”.

So this is a shout out to Dae Jun. The top photo featuring our official Dae Jun McDonald’s bag shows Joe Bischel (left – principle cellist for the Seattle Philharmonic) and Sharon Sparling (right – also cellist with the Seattle Phil and a regular in my pit orchestras). Our official prop mistress holding the bag is Rebecca Wright (middle), my first call bass clarinet, oboe and bari sax player.

Below is a high quality scan of my official Dae Jun McDonald’s bag, complete with french fry stains. Don’t doubt for a minute that I bring you the highest quality news reports from around the world folks.

To my fashion friendly friends in LA:  please note the dual hairstyles on the bag. That’s right. ONE bag – TWO  hairstyles. How can you just not totally love McDonald’s?.

Smashing Guitars

I had posted a YouTube video of a banned Mastercard commercial where a kid smashes a guitar. (Click Here for YouTube Video). Just for the record, I did in fact once have a comedian in the recording studio who did a video taping of himself smashing a brand new electric guitar just for the fun of it. He bought the guitar (I think it was a Made in Mexico Fender Strat electric) and took it right out to the parking lot to smash.

He almost broke his hand. Those guitars are very solid. I don’t know how they do it for stage dramatics, but in the real world don’t try it if you care about keeping your hands.

It looks cool when Garth Brooks does it on stage with acoustic guitars – anyone have any info on the prep they do for that? After the comedian made about fifteen jabs into the cement, and still didn’t get the explosive effect he wanted – concensus was it was kind of lame and he wasted his money.

Have a good guitar smashing story?